By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 15, 2010; 7:16 PM

Nearly 17 million families in America - about 15 percent of all households - had trouble putting enough food on the table at some point last year, a federal report released Monday morning shows.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also found that 5.6 million of these households had problems throughout the year that severely disrupted normal eating patterns. Between 500,000 and 1 million of the people affected in the homes were children.