title: Feeding a family in a recession: food insecurity among Minnesota parents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We assessed current levels of food insecurity among a large, diverse sample of parents and examined associations between food insecurity and parental weight status, eating patterns, and the home food environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity Among Teens) examined the home food environments of adolescents. Parents and caregivers (n = 2095) living with adolescents from the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota school districts completed mailed surveys during a 12-month period in 2009-2010. We performed our assessments using multivariate regressions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost 39% of the parents and caregivers experienced household food insecurity, whereas 13% experienced very low food security. Food insecurity was significantly associated with poorer nutrition-related variables such as higher rates of parental overweight and obesity, less healthy foods served at meals, and higher rates of binge eating. Food-insecure parents were 2 to 4 times more likely to report barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Food insecurity was highly prevalent. Environmental interventions are needed to protect vulnerable families against food insecurity and to improve access to affordable, healthy foods.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. brue0123@umn.edu
authors.forename: Meg
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bruening
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: MacLehose
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Loth
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Story
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neumark-Sztainer
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D003625:Data Collection; D057172:Economic Recession; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D010290:Parents