This report gives an overview of the major federal programs that provide food assistance within the United States and the territories. The report begins by discussing common concepts and themes across the network of domestic food assistance programs. The report is split into two main parts: programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS), and programs administered by the Administration on Aging (AOA), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Community Living (HHS-ACL). Within the USDA-FNS section are two subsections of programs: Farm Bill programs ( Table 1 ), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and child nutrition programs ( Table 2 ). Within the HHS-ACL section, Table 3 provides an overview of the Older Americans Act (OAA) nutrition programs. The tables within this report are intended to provide summary information, which can help illustrate the ways in which domestic food assistance programs are both similar and different. Congress has long been interested in issues of hunger and allocating federal resources to address hunger in this country. The federal programs discussed in this report pursue the goal of providing food to low-income and needy populations, seeking to prevent hunger. Some of these programs, such as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), have deep roots dating to the Depression era. More recently, many policymakers are concerned not just with the economic challenges of purchasing enough food, but with the public health concerns of improving diet quality, reducing obesity, and diet-related disease. Evaluating trends in hunger in our nation is crucial to understanding if the efforts to prevent hunger are working and in recognizing if there are particular vulnerable populations that need assistance. "Hunger," however, is a challenging concept to measure. For that reason, "food security" and "food insecurity," as opposed to "hunger," are the prevailing terms used to describe the ability to access adequate food. "Food security" and "food insecurity," as defined by USDA, focus on those economic and other access-related reasons associated with an individual's ability to purchase or otherwise obtain enough to eat. They are also terms that can be objectively measured. For this reason, a 2006 panel convened by the National Research Council, at the request of USDA, reviewed USDA measurements related to food adequacy. The panel recommended that USDA make a clear distinction between food insecurity and hunger. According to the panel, hunger is an individual-level physiological condition that is not feasible to measure through a household survey. Furthermore, the panel stated that it is difficult to capture gradations in hunger through individual assessment. Thus, the terms food security and food insecurity do not capture those noneconomic or other individual behaviors that may result in the physical condition of being hungry. For example, these terms do not capture instances where an individual may have missed a meal due to illness or because they were otherwise too busy to eat. Each year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS) conducts an analysis based on Current Population Survey (CPS) data to measure food security in the United States. Data from the USDA-ERS's 2016 study are included in this CRS report. USDA-ERS uses terminology that indicates whether a household was able to purchase or otherwise acquire enough to eat in 2016 ("food security") or not able to purchase or acquire enough to eat ("food insecurity"). Since 2006, USDA-ERS has recognized a spectrum of four levels of food security, listed below from highest to lowest: Food Security: High food security — Households had no problems, or anxiety about, consistently accessing adequate food. Marginal food security —Households had problems at times, or anxiety about, accessing adequate food, but the quality, variety, and quantity of their food intake were not substantially reduced. Food Insecurity: Low food security —Households reduced the quality, variety, and desirability of their diets, but the quantity of food intake and normal eating patterns were not substantially disrupted. Very low food security —At times during the year, eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake reduced because the household lacked money and other resources for food. Note also that a recent congressional commission, the National Commission on Hunger, used "very low food security" as its working definition of "hunger" in its report released in January 2016. The annual rate of food insecurity for households was 11.1% in 2007, rose to as high as 14.9% in 2011, before declining to 12.7% in 2015. The 2016 rate of food insecurity is now estimated at 12.3%, which is not a statistically significant decline from 2015. These rates, as well as the subset "very low food security," are shown in Figure 1 . Specific measurements for 2016 are the following: 12.3% of U.S. households were food insecure (87.7% of U.S. households were food secure ). This was not a statistically significant decrease from 2015. 4.9% had very low food security ; this is essentially unchanged from 5.0% in 2015. 59.0% of food insecure households reported that they had participated in SNAP, WIC, or NSLP in the last month. (This rate is unchanged from the 2015 report.) USDA-ERS also tabulates food insecurity rates for many different subpopulations and household types, finding subgroups above and below the national rates of food insecurity. Some examples of their 2016 findings include the following: 7.8% of households that included an elderly member were food insecure . This decline from 2015's rate (8.3%) is not statistically significant. 16.5% of households that included children were food insecure . Food insecure households with children do not always include children who are themselves food insecure, as adults often shield children. Therefore, only 8.0% of households with children included food insecure children. Figure 2 , created by USDA-ERS, displays the food security and insecurity status of household members within the category of households with children. These changes from 2015 findings (which were 16.6% and 7.8%, respectively) are not statistically significant. 22.5% of households headed by black, non-Hispanics and 18.5% of households headed by Hispanics were food insecure. (These were not statistically significant changes from 2015 rates (21.5% and 18.5%, respectively).) 9.3% of white, non-Hispanic households were food insecure in the 2016 estimate, which was a statistically significant decrease from 2015 (10.5%). There are a number of domestic food assistance programs. Although each of the 17 programs discussed in this report provides for food in some way, the ways in which each program accomplishes this goal vary. For example, programs vary with respect to the target population (e.g., pregnant women, children, older individuals), eligibility requirements, and types of assistance provided (e.g., commodity foods, prepared meals). In an April 2010 report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) listed 70 programs that pertain to food and nutrition but ultimately narrowed their study to a smaller subset of 18 programs that focus on food assistance or coordination of food assistance activities. One way to examine this variation is to compare the populations eligible for these domestic food assistance programs. For instance, the WIC program is available to children under the age of five, while the school meals programs (NSLP and School Breakfast Program [SBP]) become available to school-age children. Another way to examine this variation is to compare the benefits that these programs provide. Within this constellation of programs, federal resources provide benefits redeemable for uncooked foods, cash assistance to support program operations, USDA-purchased commodity foods (discussed further in the next section), and prepared meals. While some programs provide specific foods (e.g., through the federal and state requirements for "food package" in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program [CSFP] and WIC), SNAP gives benefits that may be redeemed for a wide variety of foods at authorized retailers. OAA programs provide prepared meals that not only assist those who lack adequate resources to purchase food, but can also assist those who lack the functional capacity to prepare a meal on their own. The following sections of the report and the accompanying tables provide more details about the services, eligibility, participation, and funding for each program. They help illustrate the similarities and differences between the programs, including the extent to which they provide similar or distinct forms of assistance to similar or distinct populations. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers domestic food assistance programs authorized in the farm bill ( Table 1 ), as well as WIC and Child Nutrition Programs ( Table 2 ). Table 1 and Table 2 provide details on the USDA-FNS programs, including services provided, eligibility, participation, and funding. The USDA-FNS national office works in concert with USDA-FNS's regional offices and state agencies. With respect to SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), state agencies and legislatures have a number of options and waivers that can affect SNAP program operations from state to state. USDA-FNS's "SNAP State Options" report illustrates how states are administering the program. With respect to school meals programs (National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program), state departments of education and school districts play a role in administering these programs. WIC as well as the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) are often co-administered by state and local health departments. As mentioned above, USDA commodity foods are foods purchased by the USDA for distribution to USDA nutrition programs. The programs in this report that include USDA commodity foods are The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).