Explaining High Rates of Hunger and Food Insecurity in Oregon

Mark E. Edwards, Oregon State University
Bruce A. Weber, Oregon State University

By the late 1990s, Oregon surprisingly emerged as the state with the highest levels of food insecurity with hunger. In spite of moderate, stable poverty rates, legislative mandates to eliminate hunger, and economic growth that paralleled or surpassed that of many other states, hunger and food insecurity grew. In collaboration with the USDA Economic Research Service, we are analyzing Current Population Survey data (1995-2000) and the Oregon Population Survey (2000) to examine how in-migration, housing prices, and economic restructuring may have driven up the hunger rate in Oregon to its especially high levels. Drawing on individual-level demographic correlates of hunger and food insecurity, we use standard demographic techniques to consider which of the existing explanations for Oregon’s high rate of hunger find the most and least support. Our poster will report the initial findings of this project, as well as articulate lines of current and future inquiry.