• review, and revise as needed, ERS work on item calibrations, household scores, and estimated prevalences of food insecurity and hunger based on the 1998 and 1999 Food Security Supplements to the Current Population Surveys;
• extend the analysis of the food security data to a child-specific scale, and calculate household scores on this scale for 1995, 1996, and 1997 data as well as for 1998 and 1999;
• assess changes in the prevalence of food security and hunger in recent years; convene expert advisory panel to review and assess the current state of the art in measuring food security and hunger;
• detailed summary and technical reports on food security and hunger and the measurement of those phenomena at the household level.

Starting with the 1998 Food Security Supplement data, ERS began to conduct the preliminary analysis of the annual data on an in-house basis. ERS calculated household food security scores and food security status for the public-use microdata file, and published several important statistical series based on those data. Work under this contract will provide quality control checks on those processes, and will extend the scope and detail of the preliminary analysis and reports prepared by ERS. The work is a fixed-price contract with IQ Solutions, Inc. awarded in fiscal 1999 at a cost of $236,859. Work is expected to be completed in February, 2001.