Number of U.S. Hungry Kids Jumped 50% Last Year

Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year�s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

The department�s annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than double the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.