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: the 13th juror

Something to think about ... while you enjoy those leftovers

By Jacqueline Dowd

Did you enjoy that turkey yesterday? And the stuffing and gravy and pumpkin pie? Did you loosen your belt and take a nap, secure in the thought that there are plenty of leftovers for today, and plenty of food for you and your family for the foreseeable future?

If you can answer "yes" to those questions, you're one of the lucky ones, among the 89% of Americans who don't have to worry where their next meal is coming from.

Everyone -- every single American -- should have it so good.

But 11% of Americans, a staggering 35.5 million people, were "food insecure"* in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual hunger survey. A disgraceful number of persons -- 11.1 million, primarily single mothers and their children, and minority households -- struggled to put food on the table. And that figure doesn't include the nation's homeless, about 750,000 people on any given day.

Florida was actually one of the brighter spots in the report. The number of food-insecure Floridians decreased 4.3% over the past 10 years. Only Hawaii had a bigger decrease.

Read the report, "Household Food Security in the United States," here.

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* The term "food insecure," in fed-speak, means they lived in a household that, at some time during the year, had difficulty providing enough food for all its members due to a lack of resources.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on November 23, 2007 (boomark / email).