Household Food Security in the United States in 1995: Summary Report of the Food Security Measurement Project

In April 1995, the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducted the first collection of comprehensive food security data as a supplement to its regular Current Population Survey. This survey of approximately 45,000 households is the first to collect the special data needed to measure food insecurity and hunger in a nationally-represented sample of U.S. households. The present study describes the analyses through which the food security scales and food security status variable were developed, as well as related tests of the reliability and validity of these measures.