WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (AP) — Despite the nation's struggle with obesity, the Agriculture Department says, more and more American families are hungry or unsure whether they can afford to buy food.

About 12 million families last year worried that they did not have enough money for food, and 32 percent of them experienced someone's going hungry at one time or another, the agency said in a report released on Friday.

Nearly 3.8 million families were hungry last year to the point that someone in the household skipped meals because the family could not afford them. That is 8.6 percent more families than in 2001, when 3.5 million were hungry, and a 13 percent increase from 2000.

ap via nyt: More U.S. Families Hungry or Too Poor to Eat, Study Says