Inflation has made food more expensive, making it harder for families to put food on the table and more difficult for food banks to keep their shelves stocked.

“We're very concerned about the people who live in food-insecure households,” said Jean Daniel, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which recently released its annual study on hunger in America.

The study showed the number of people living in households with “food insecurity”—where their normal diets changed due to lack of food or money—increased from 35.1 million in 2005 to 35.5 million in 2006.

The Bread for the World Institute also released its annual hunger report, calling for the United States to “make it a national goal to cut hunger and poverty in half by 2015.”

The report applauded the government's recent decision to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by July 2009, but it stressed that low-income families need access to affordable health insurance and child care.

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless released its own report that chided 22 cities for new laws that they say punish individuals and groups who feed the homeless in public areas.

In Dallas, for example, “anyone caught sharing food with a homeless person without a permit may be fined up to $2,000 and/or jailed for up to six months,” the report said.

“We need to encourage, not arrest, good Samaritans,” said Michael Stoops, the acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

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