Hunger in the United States: A Summary of Recent Studies on Hunger and Emergency Food Demand.

This is an annotated resource guide for those interested in recent hunger and food insecurity studies. Objectives, methods, and key findings of each study are summarized, and contact information for obtaining the report is given. Studies are grouped by survey location and listed chronologically by publication or release date within each geographic category. Location and subject indexes are provided to help navigate the material. The location index differentiates studies with a national or multi-state purview from those focusing on communities within individual states. Study summaries are grouped into three categories: measuring food needs and hardship in general populations, emergency food recipients and provider efforts, and the impact of changes in public assistance programs on food security. Studies were published or released since 1998 and were based on data gathered no earlier than 1995. Summaries of key findings are limited to aspects directly related to food security. Studies are noteworthy for their large volume and extensive geographic diversity, variety of food insecurity and hunger issues investigated, and heterogeneity of approaches employed to evaluate hunger and food insecurity nationwide. An appendix presents the USDA's Food Security Core Module, a validated survey instrument for assessing household food security. (SM)