For those on the front lines of fighting hunger in America, the past half-decade has been like running on empty. The Great Recession that began in 2007 left millions of families struggling with tough choices, like whether to pay for housing or dinner.
But the latest Gallup poll on food insecurity in America offers a hint of hope: The percentage of Americans who say they did not have enough money to buy food for themselves or their families in the last 12 months dropped to its lowest level since 2008 ā 17.2 percent, down from 18.9 percent in 2013, the poll found.
"I absolutely would describe it as a glimmer of hope," says Elaine Waxman, vice president of research and nutrition at Feeding America, a network of U.S. food banks.
Waxman oversaw the release this summer of Hunger in America 2014, the largest study of charitable food assistance in the country. That survey, which was conducted in 2013, found that more than 1 in 7 Americans used a food pantry last year ā including many military families.
The new Gallup poll picks up where Hunger in America left off, polling people from January to October of this year. And the message, says Waxman, is that maybe things are finally starting to get back on track.
[For more of this story, written by Maria Godoy, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesa...st-hunger-in-america]
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