By TaRessa Stovall

Experts call it “food insecurity … meaning that the food intake is reduced and … disrupted at times … because the household lacked money and other resources for food.” And not surprisingly, it’s on the rise.

Upwards of one in seven American households is going hungry, with numbers expected to rise because of the economy. According to a report released November 16 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USDA), some 49 million people—14.6 percent of the households in our nation are suffering from hunger pangs on a regular basis.

That’s a major increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households were “food insecure.”

According to ABC News, “Those most likely to report difficulty getting food were households earning below the poverty line [42.2 percent]; single-parent families [37.2 percent headed by women; 27.6 percent headed by men]; Hispanics [26.9 percent] and black families [27.5 percent].

More children are going to bed hungry: 16.7 million in 2008, 4.3 million more than in 2008. More parents are foregoing meals so their kids can eat. Lynn Brantley, President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank in the Washington, DC metro area, told Jim Lehrer on his PBS show, that “…right here in Washington, one of every two children is at risk of hunger …. And it shows where we’re moving as a country. And we need to change that direction.”

“As American families prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, we received an unsettling report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found that hunger rose significantly last year,” President Barack Obama said in a prepared White House statement in response to the USDA report. “This trend was already painfully clear in many communities across our nation, where food stamp applications are surging and food pantry shelves are emptying.”

He expressed particular concern for the “more than 500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times over the course of the year.”

The President said his administration “is committed to reversing the trend of rising hunger. The first task is to restore job growth, which will help relieve the economic pressures that make it difficult for parents to put a square meal on the table each day.”

He also mentioned taking “targeted steps to prevent Americans from experiencing hunger. Earlier this year, we extended help to those hit hardest by this economic downturn by boosting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] benefits.”

SNAP benefits are, according to a United Press International story, “A central part of the administration’s Recovery Act … a large increase in nutrition assistance benefits for the 36.5 million, half of them children, who participate in the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program …”

With more people than ever relying on food banks, donations are increasingly vital. To learn more about hunger around the nation and find a food bank in your area, visit FeedingAmerica.org.

TaRessa Stovall is Managing Editor of TheDefendersOnline.