Many of the state's neediest people are working. The USDA Food Security Measure cited above indicates that in 1998 approximately 8.7 percent of Maine households experienced food insecurity. While that is near the national average, the 3.7 percent of Maine households who directly experience hunger exceeds the national average. This means that more than 40 percent of Maine kids under 12 showed some evidence of hunger when this research was conducted. While the USDA currently surveys enough people to have detailed data about hunger and food insecurity for each individual state, it does not gather enough information, for example, to tell us how many people are hungry in Aroostook County or Lewiston.
Further research is needed.
Its report, with recommendations for legislation, was filed on November 1, 1996. One outcome of this commission is the follow-up Millennium Commission on Hunger and Food Security began meeting in the fall of 1999. Third, and most critical, is the need to ensure that each household has physical, social and economic access to enough food to meet its needs. This means that each household must have the knowledge and the ability to produce or procure the food that it needs on a sustainable basis. The right to an adequate standard of living, including food, is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.