The Consequences of Insufficient Household Income

FOOD
insecure” (a term that describes hunger) at
some point in 2015, including 17 percent of
households with children.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
defines food insecurity as the lack of access,
at times, to enough food for an active, healthy
life for all household members and limited or
uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate
foods. This includes both households with
low food security (lower quality, variety, and
desirability of food) and those with very low
food security (multiple instances of disrupted
eating patterns and reduced food intake). Food
insecurity is most widespread among the lowest
income groups, and it is often a recurrent
situation. USDA national data has found that
on average, affected households were food
insecure for seven months of the year. Chronic
food insecurity leads to less healthy eating and
increased stress, which both contribute to poor
Food is the most basic of all needs. In a country with vast
agricultural resources, it may seem surprising that any family
faces hunger. Yet
13 percent of U.S.
households were “food
health (Coleman-Jensen, Rabbitt, Gregory, & Singh, 2016).
STRATEGIES
What do ALICE and poverty-level
households do when they cannot
afford the food they need?
1:
Eat Less Food and Less
Healthy Food
2: Seek Food Assistance
3: Forgo Other Essentials
Having enough food is a basic challenge for ALICE and poverty-level households. The cost of
food in the Household Survival Budget is based on the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan, the most
minimal of the agency’s four food plans. Yet the gap between how much ALICE families need
for food and what they can afford to spend shows up clearly in Figure 7, which compares
three different monthly food budgets for a family of four to the monthly salary of a full-time
employee working as a packer. In the U.S., 693,170 ALICE workers packaged a wide variety
of products and materials (including food) by hand at an average hourly wage of $11.08, or
$22,160 annually (if full time, year-round) in 2014 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014).
This section presents the best research available on the hard choices that struggling families are making every day when they do not have
enough money for food, and the consequences of those choices. These are not policy recommendations, but information and analysis that can
help stakeholders create the most effective solutions for their communities.
40 UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT – THE CONSEQUENCES OF INSUFFICIENT HOUSEHOLD INCOME