ABSTRACT
This chapter presents consensus data regarding the characteristics of individuals who self-reported hunger, to make suggestions as to how this information can and should be collected in the future, and discusses the policy implications of the research. Hundreds of national, state, and local studies were undertaken by churches, private agencies, and government agencies in an effort to document the existence and extent of hunger in the US Hunger and malnutrition became the topics of national security during World War II when a noticeably large number of draftees were rejected because of nutrition-related health disorders. The need for an accurate description of populations at risk of hunger is widely recognized by individuals conducting hunger research. The President’s Task Force on Food Assistance studied the problem in 1984, but found no evidence of widespread hunger. Correlational analyses between certain socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported hunger were conducted. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
