Food for thought understanding older adult food insecurity
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures food insecurity by focusing on whether households have enough money to purchase food during the last twelve months. Among households containing adults sixty and older in 2022, 8.7 percent were classified as food insecure, and this proportion rises to 29....
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Russell Sage,
[2025]
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| Subjects: | |
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| Summary: | "The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures food insecurity by focusing on whether households have enough money to purchase food during the last twelve months. Among households containing adults sixty and older in 2022, 8.7 percent were classified as food insecure, and this proportion rises to 29. 7 percent when the focus is on adults ages sixty and older living below the federal poverty line. When the authors consider the risk of food insecurity over a longer time frame than twelve months, 22 percent of older adults experienced food insecurity at some point in their sixties and seventies. This means that the cumulative risk of food insecurity is quite high across older ages. Food insecurity is not concentrated within a small subset of the population. Instead, a significant portion of older adults currently face economic constraints in their ability to afford food. This books starts with two basic questions: Why does the measured risk of food insecurity go down in older age, and why are levels of participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program so much lower for older adults than they are for prime-aged households? The answers to these two basic questions, and the others that they lead to, are critical to understand if we want to ensure that our public policies and programs support the needs of older adults. Motivated by their own desire to dig into the data and lived experience of older adults, the authors aim to create a better understanding of the issues around food insecurity for older adults with the goal of influencing public policy"-- |
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| Physical Description: | pages ; cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780871548580 0871548585 |
| Author Notes: | MADONNA HARRINGTON MEYER is a University Professor, Syracuse University |
