Indicator: 55 - Food Insecurity

Why This Is Important

Children’s good health and development depend on a diet sufficient in nutrients and calories. A family’s ability to provide for children’s nutritional needs is linked to income or other resources and secure access to adequate, nutritious food. Nutrition education regarding food menus also influences children’s access to appropriate food items. Children in food-insecure households are at risk of hunger and suboptimal development.

Where We Stand

About one in six adult respondents answered “often true” or “somewhat true” in response to the statement, “I worried whether my food would run out before I got money to buy more.” In general, food insecurity drops with reported increases in household income.

Data Sources and Context

Maine data for this indicator comes from the Maine Development Foundation 2000 and 2001 Surveys of Maine Citizens. The 2000 Survey was conducted in September 2000 by Market Decisions, Inc.; the 2001 Survey was done between August 20 and September 6, 2001 by Strategic Marketing Services. In both years a randomly selected statewide sample of 601 households was interviewed by telephone. Special effort was made to include an adequate number of parents with children living primarily at home (401 in 2000, and 425 in 2001), so their responses are representative of all parents in Maine. However, because the number of parents in each of the income groups in the chart is comparatively small (especially for households with income below $15,000), those results are not necessarily representative of all parents in those income groups in Maine. The survey data are available on-line at http://mdf.org. 

The Survey was not conducted in 2002; the Foundation intends to administer the next Survey in time for results to be included in the Maine Economic Growth Council’s publication of Measures of Growth 2004.