ARS | Publication request: REGIONAL ESTIMATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN DELTA COUNTIES OF ARKANSAS, LOUISIANA, AND MISSISSIPPI EXCEED NATIONAL RATES.

Submitted to: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: July 5, 2001
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Residents of the Lower Mississippi Delta are at risk for high rates of food insecurity since a high proportion of the population are in households with incomes below the poverty level. The Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) conducted FOODS 2000, a random digit dialing telephone survey of 1662 households representative of 36 Delta Counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Household food security was measured using the USDA Food Security Core Module, a series of questions about conditions and behaviors known to characterize households having difficulty meeting basic foods needs in the previous 12 months. Appropriate weighting factors were applied to provide regionally representative prevalence estimates. Based on the food security scale, 21.1% of households surveyed were food insecure; 14.6% were food insecure without hunger and 6.5% were food insecure with hunger. Food insecurity in the Lower Delta is higher than the nationwide household estimate of 10.1%. Within the Lower Delta, groups that had rates of food insecurity higher than the Delta regional average were household with income< $15,000, Black households, and households with children. This survey has shown that food insecurity in the Lower Mississippi Delta is higher than nationwide and indicates the need for communities, agencies, and nutritionists to investigate the household and community determinants of food insecurity to reduce the high prevalence. Funded by USDA/ARS.