Current Population Survey, April 1997: Food Security Supplement

Data are provided in this collection on labor force activity for the week prior to the survey. Comprehensive data are available on the employment status, occupation, and industry of persons 15 years old and older. Also shown are personal characteristics such as age, sex, race, marital status, veteran status, household relationship, educational background, and Hispanic origin. The Food Security Supplement was conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Food and Consumer Service (FCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture. Supplement questions were asked of all interviewed households, as appropriate. Questions included expenditure for food, whether the household had enough food and had the kinds of food they wanted, and whether the household was running short of money and trying to make their food or food money go further. Additional questions dealt with getting food from food pantries or soup kitchens, cutting the size of or skipping meals, and losing weight because there wasn't enough food. The supplement was intended to research the full range of the severity of food insecurity and hunger as experienced in United States households and was used by the supplement sponsor to produce a scaled measure of food insecurity. Responses to individual items in this supplement are not meaningful measures of food insufficiency and should not be used in such a manner.