This issues brief assesses progress toward the U.S. Government's Healthy People 2010 objective of reducing the prevalence rate of food insecurity in the Nation to half of its 1995 level by 2010. It describes methods used to measure and monitor food security, trends in food insecurity and hunger from 1995 to 2000, the extent to which the strong economic growth during the period was responsible for the improvements in food security, and characteristics of food-insecure households.