The latest Department of Agriculture report on hunger in America, shows that the number of Americans that were hungry in 2008 rose to 14.6%. The report has been released annually since 1995. Rather than hunger, the USDA uses the term "food insecurity."

A quarter a pound doesn't seem like a lot of money. But when you put 4 million of them together, it adds up to a substantial chunk of change. That amount -- $1 million -- is what Weight Watchers is donating to two groups fighting to combat hunger after the successful conclusion of its second annual "Lose for Good" campaign.

Now there's a new reason for the weight-conscious to drink fat free milk at breakfast time, suggests a new study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers in Australia found that drinking fat free milk in the morning helped increase satiety, or a feeling of fullness, and led to decreased calorie intake at the next meal, as compared with a fruit drink. The milk drinkers ate about 50 fewer calories (or nearly 9% less food) at lunch.

New research led by the University of Cincinnati (UC) suggests that the hunger hormone ghrelin is activated by fats from the foods we eat—not those made in the body—in order to optimize nutrient metabolism and promote the storage of body fat.

The Food Bank for New York, which has been handing out groceries to poor New Yorkers for 25 years, reports that things are getting bad out there. The number of locals who say they have trouble paying for food has gone up 26 percent in the past recession year -- from 3.1 to 4 million, or about 48 percent of New Yorkers (!).

Rising food prices have left another 40 million people worldwide without enough to eat this year, bringing the total number to 963 million, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday.

New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center may explain why some people who are stressed or depressed overeat.

As concerns of a global hunger crises mount, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and researchers at the University of Washington today launched a new program to develop stronger strains of rice that could produce crops with larger and more nutritious yields.

UN experts warn: long-standing conflicts set off by higher food prices are in store for the world.

More than $1.1 billion a year is spent on public programs in Missouri, yet a new University of Missouri study reports the state has a rising number of people worried about having sufficient amounts of food and coping with hunger.

Many children in Niger, the landlocked nation of West Africa, are dying from treatable conditions in the name of sustainability.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is calling for a renewed commitment to guarantee the right to food for the 850 million hungry people in the world. A ceremony was held at FAO headquarters in Rome to mark World Food Day 2007.