Agriculture Department: 1 In 8 Americans Struggled With Hunger In 2007

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Food insecurity meant that 691,000 children went hungry in America during 2007, the Agriculture Department reports.

Some 36.2 million adults and children struggled to get enough to eat last year . These are people who didn't have the money or assistance to obtain sufficient food to maintain active, healthy lives.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials released their annual report on food security on Monday, revealing that the rate of hunger rose to 11.1 percent of all U.S. households in 2007 from 10.9 percent in 2006. That increase equated to 12.2 percent of all Americans, or one in eight people nationwide, struggled to feed themselves in 2007.

The study found that the number of children experiencing hunger had increased by 50 percent from 430,000 hungry children in 2006.

And a sharper increase in the number of Americans suffering from hunger is expected in next year's report because of the rise in food prices in 2008 coupled with massive job losses this year.

"Rates of food insecurity were substantially higher than the national average for households with incomes near or below the Federal poverty line, households with children headed by single women, and Black and Hispanic households," USDA officials wrote in statement on the report.

USDA officials also found that the rates of food insecurity were highest in large cities and rural areas and, regionally higher in the South than in the North or Midwest.