That’s the number of people in Cook County who are “food insecure,” according to a report by the Chicago Reporter citing data by Feeding America, a hunger-relief charity. That means 1 in 5 people or 16.1 percent of people here don’t have enough food every day. What’s more frightening is that 36 percent of them are actually living above the federal poverty line.

Food security is based on the USDA’s measure, which looks at access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. Food insecurity could also mean limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally-adequate foods, or “reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs” like housing and medical bills, according to Feeding America. The group came up with the data using county-level food insecurity estimates by income categories and the estimated food budget shortfall as reported by food insecure people. Nationwide, 47,024,460 or 16.6 percent of people are considered food insecure. See the map here.

Low wages and expensive food could be to blame, but the real discrepancy between the numbers and reality could be blamed on the poverty measure, according to the Chicago Reporter's Megan Cottrell:

The federal 2009 poverty line for a family of four is $20,050, so 185 percent of the poverty line for that same family is $40,792. It sounded like a lot when I first calculated it, but then I realized that two parents both working full time at $10 an hour don't even make that much before taxes--$38,400.