The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an analysis on Friday that showed that 38.2 million Americans live in “food insecure” households, meaning that they have to cut back on food requirements because of lack of money. This represents an increase of 7 million since 1999. The number of people suffering from hunger increased by 43% since 1999, from 7.7 million to 10.6 million.

The number of people suffering from hunger and food insecurity has grown for five straight years, after declining in the 1990s.

Dr. J. Larry Brown, a leading scholarly authority on domestic hunger commented that;

This is an unexpected and even stunning outcome. This chronic level of hunger so long after the recession ended means that it is a man-made problem. Congress and the White House urgently need to address growing income inequality and the weakening of the safety net in order to get this epidemic under control.” According to the Center on Hunger and Poverty, food insecurity increased by nearly a million households from 2003 to 2004. Rates of hunger increased in almost every single category of household during the same time, with single mothers and those living in or near poverty continuing to suffer from severely high rates of both food insecurity and hunger.

Meanwhile Congress gets ready to consider cutting the fod stamp program to help pay for the war in Iraq, tax cuts, hurricane relief, and the ballooning budget deficits that have resulted.

Where are the champions of the poor?