Questionnaire: Household Food Security in the United States, 2009

Questions Used To Assess the Food Security of Households in USDA’s Annual Food Security Survey

1. “We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
   
   
2. “The food that we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
   
   
3. “We couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
   
   
4. In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
   
   
5. (If yes to question 4) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but
   not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
   
   
6. In the last 12 months, did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
   
   
7. In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn’t eat, because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
   
   
8. In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
   
   
9. In the last 12 months did you or other adults in your household ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
   
   
10. (If yes to question 9) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
    
    (Questions 11-18 are asked only if the household includes children age 0-17)
    
    
11. “We relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed our children because we were running out of money to buy food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
    
    
12. “We couldn’t feed our children a balanced meal, because we couldn’t afford that.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
    
    
13. “The children were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
    
    
14. In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of any of the children’s meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
    
    
15. In the last 12 months, were the children ever hungry but you just couldn’t afford more food? (Yes/No)
    
    
16. In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip a meal because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
    
    
17. (If yes to question 16) How often did this happen—almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
    
    
18.  In the last 12 months did any of the children ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)

Using the Responses to Determine the Food Security Status of the Household

Households are classified as food insecure if they report three or more of the 18 potentially food-insecure conditions. Households that report eight or more of the conditions (six or more if there are no children in the household) are classified as having very low food security. (Households with very low food security are also counted as food insecure.)

Households are classified as having food insecurity among children if they report two or more of the potentially food-insecure conditions among children (questions 11-18). Very low food security among children is indicated if they report five or more of those conditions.

For more complete information on determining the food security status of surveyed households, see http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/surveytools/hh2008.pdf

Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov