Reduce household food insecurity and hunger  — NWS‑01 Data Methodology and Measurement

The U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module is a set of 18 questions developed in the early 1990s by an interagency working group led jointly by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service and CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Three of the questions ask about food conditions in the household as a whole, seven ask about food conditions among adults in the household or the adult respondent, and eight ask about food conditions among children (if any) in the household. All of the questions in the module focus explicitly on food inadequacy and insufficiency that result from inadequate household resources. Other sources of food insecurity, such as child abuse or neglect are not identified by the measure.

The Food Security Supplement is administered annually to about 40,000 households in December as part of the monthly, nationally representative Current Population Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The supplement has been conducted annually since 1995. The supplement is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The survey responses are used to identify households that were food insecure at least some time during the year. Households are classified as food secure if none of the questions were answered affirmatively or if only one or two questions were answered affirmatively. If three or more questions are answered affirmatively, the household is classified as food insecure. Answers of "yes," "often," or "sometimes" are considered affirmative.

Disability status in the population template combines information on all adult household members and includes disabled-not in labor force, and other disabilities including hearing, vision, mental, physical, self-care, and going-outside-home disabilities.