"Last year, according to the Department of Agriculture, 34.9 million Americans like the Compeans were "food insecure" — the government's term for those who must survive on a diet not nutritious enough to keep a child or an adult healthy. More than 13 million of those people were children. The U.S. Conference of Mayors expects that requests for emergency food from families with children will increase in 91% of the nation's cities this year. They also document that emergency food outlets in 56% of the nation's cities turned away hungry families last year because they ran out of resources."