A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 14.3% of American households didn't have access to adequate food at some point during the year, either because they didn't have the money or other resources to get it.
Of those, 5.6% were considered to have "very low food security," meaning members of the household cut back on meals or changed eating patterns.
The 2013 data remain virtually unchanged from the 2012 total of 17.6 million households that had limited access to food. But the latest figures represent a larger drop from 2011, when a record 17.9 million U.S. households qualified as "food insecure."
More-recent figures signal an improving picture for Americans struggling to feed themselves. The number of Americans using food stamps reached 46.2 million in May, according to the most recent data, down from a record 47.8 million in December 2012.
Much like the statistics on food security, the food-stamp numbers are historically high compared with prerecession data, suggesting that Americans at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to face challenges.
Improvements in the job market in recent years have been offset by higher food prices and inflation, said USDA social science analyst Alisha Coleman-Jensen, one of the authors of the report. She added that the majority of households experiencing food insecurity have at least one adult who is working.
