Dear Sir: The article, "Rotary's Hidden Industry," in the November 16, 2005 issue of the Ballard News-Tribune, reported on the Rotary's excellent program and effort that is both thoughtful and efficient, for getting fresh produce to those in need.

However, your statement, "the USDA...found 12% of households in Washington State were food insecure, compared to 11.6% the year before; an increase of more than a quarter of a million households," puzzles me.

According the USDA, in 2003, 275,000 households in Washington were food insecure or 11.6% of the total. And for 2004, 12% of households were food insecure. I may be wrong but it looks to me like the four tenths of one percent increase is an increase of 1,100 households, not that of over 250,000, as stated in the article.

Yours truly,

Mark Pahlow

Editor's note. Mr. Pahlow is quite right. The statement should have read that a quarter of a million households were food insecure in total. Thanks and apologies.