Indicators of Food Insecurity and Hunger Among Adults (6.3.1)

Table 6.3.1 presents responses to the four questions about adults in the six-item short module.

Table 6.3.1
INDICATORS OF FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER AMONG ADULTS

	Pantry Client Households	Kitchen Client Households	Shelter Client Households	All Client Households
How often adult clients or other adults in the household cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there wasn’t enough money for food for the previous 12 months a
Almost every month	23.6%	28.2%	28.1%	24.7%
Some months but not every month	18.7%	17.3%	18.3%	18.5%
Only one or two months	6.6%	7.1%	9.4%	6.9%
Never	51.0%	47.4%	44.1%	49.9%

Clients who ate less than they felt they should because there wasn’t enough money to buy food for the previous 12 months
Yes	51.1%	53.4%	57.3%	51.9%
No	48.9%	46.6%	42.7%	48.1%
TOTAL	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Clients who were hungry but didn’t eat because they couldn’t afford enough food for the previous 12 months
Yes	35.8%	46.0%	50.6%	38.5%
No	64.2%	54.0%	49.4%	61.5%
TOTAL	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Clients or other adults in the household ever did not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food
Yes	23.0%	35.0%	41.6%	26.3%
No	77.0%	65.0%	58.4%	73.7%
TOTAL	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
SAMPLE SIZE (N)	37,986	10,667	4,225	52,878

Source:
This table was constructed based on usable responses to questions 44, 44a, 45, 46, and 47 of the client survey .

Notes:
The percentages presented in this table are based only on usable responses, excluding missing, don’t know, and refusal responses. All usable responses were weighted as described in Chapter 3 and in the Technical Appendix volume to represent all emergency food clients of the A2H National Network. The sample sizes (N) also include missing data.

For cutting meal size, missing, don’t know, and refusal responses combined are 3.2% for pantry clients, 3.8% for kitchen clients, 3.8% for shelter clients, and 3.3% for all clients.

For eating less, missing, don’t know, and refusal responses combined are 3.3% for pantry clients, 3.3% for kitchen clients, 4.0% for shelter clients, and 3.3% for all clients.

For being hungry because could not afford food, missing, don’t know, and refusal responses combined are 3.0% for pantry clients, 3.1% for kitchen clients, 3.8% for shelter clients, and 3.1% for all clients.

For not eating for a whole day, missing, don’t know, and refusal responses combined are 3.3% for pantry clients, 2.9% for kitchen clients, 5.3% for shelter clients, and 3.4% for all clients.

a Responses may not add up to 100% because this panel was constructed from two questions: “Never” came from Question 44, and the other responses from Question 44a.

Adults in 24.7% of the client households had to cut the size of meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food almost every month of the previous 12 months. Responses to the remaining three questions are:

51.9% of the clients ate less than they felt they should because there was not enough money to buy food during the previous 12 months.
Adults in 38.5% of the client households were hungry but did not eat because they could not afford enough food during the previous 12 months.
Adults in 26.3% of the client households did not eat for a whole day at least once during the previous 12 months because there was not enough money for food.