The system used to distribute food rations to Iraqis -- the successor to the U.N. oil-for-food program -- has thus far failed to adapt to the massive migration of Iraqis within the country and is restricted by security problems and the threat of violence.

The government-run public distribution system (PDS) was set up to provide food to Iraqis during the time of severe sanctions against Saddam Hussein's government.

The rations, or food baskets as they are known, include staple items like rice, cooking oil, flour, detergent, powdered milk, sugar and white beans. The amount of each item in the rations was recently reduced due to availability issues, according to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dependent populations
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported in April that of the 4 million Iraqis who cannot buy enough to eat, 40 percent don't have regular access to rations supplied by the PDS.

While the system ran efficiently during Saddam's reign, and was the largest system of its kind in the world, subsequent breakdowns in infrastructure and security have caused delays and gaps in distribution.

The World Food Programme has been running a supplemental program for the most vulnerable Iraqis, but is ending that program and refocusing efforts on internally displaced people (IDPs) driven from their homes by violence in search of more stable communities.

"For us it is crucial that the PDS should function rightly," Stefano Porretti, the World Food Programme director for Iraq, said from Amman. "The major problem is security -- the absence of stability -- and partially problems with the management of the system."

The Nongovernmental Coordination Committee in Iraq, which coordinates 70 international and 200 national nongovernmental organizations, said 47 percent of the population is highly dependent on government rations.

Kasra Mofarah, director of NCCI, said turnover, a lack of good management and political divisions within the ministries of the government have all made the PDS less effective.

Ration card complications
No population has been struck harder by failures in the PDS system than IDPs, who have to transfer their ration cards to their new locations, a long process that has been impossible for many Iraqis.

"The population is moving so quickly. Some provinces have closed their borders to IDPs and one way to keep them out is to stop the transfer of the ration cards," Mofarah said.

Currently, people are required to return to their home region to apply for the transfer, which is oftentimes dangerous.

"We interviewed dozens of families that had been displaced from the center and south of Iraq to the north," said Kristele Younes of Refugees International. "None of them had been able to transfer their food ration cards."

According to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C., certain distribution centers will hand out rations to IDPs who have not been transferred.

A new system also is in the works to allow the temporary issuing of cards that would allow IDPs to collect rations, but the registration is still a major obstacle in many places, the World Food Programme's Porretti said.

"We are planning to assist the government to try to find a more flexible ways to make these IDPs integrated into the regular PDS cycle ... pending the delivery of a brand new registration card," said Porretti.

But because the PDS card is also tied to voter registration, the massive migrations are causing political concerns, too.

"It is still used for voter registration, which is why especially in the north the KRG [Kurdistan Region Government] is very reluctant to issue the new cards," said Dana Graber Ladek of the International Organization for Migration.

The value of rations
The role of rations has extended beyond nutritional needs during this war. Food has become a source of income for families who trade the food for money or other necessities, Mofarah said.

"[Iraqis] depend more and more on the PDS while the PDS is facing more and more obstacles."

There are limited opportunities to earn other revenue for buying supplies, said Porretti, but it is often the most privileged people who have access to work.

"The IDPs have no access to work because they move from their normal residency area to a completely different governorate. They are the most insecure," Porretti said.

Infrastructure troubles
Meanwhile, the same violence causing the large migrations is disrupting the distribution of food.

Food supplies usually arrive through the Basra port in southern Iraq. The rations are then taken to the central location of Baghdad for warehousing, and then distributed via trucks throughout the country.

That centralized system causes delays in distributing food and means that food has to be transported for much longer distances than necessary, according to an Oxfam humanitarian report from July.

The trucks have been targeted by attacks and their contents can be valuable for anyone brave enough to stop them, said Porretti.

Nutrition
Even for families who are receiving rations, the food basket was never intended to be the sole source of a balanced diet for Iraqis, so it does not contain all the nutrients needed to stay healthy.

While the situation is not dire yet, the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, reported an increase in malnutrition cases in Iraq among children since the 2003 invasion through the beginning of 2006. An increasing number of people are "food insecure," a term meaning they do not receive a minimum goal of calories each day.

"The poverty that is hitting middle classes, particularly in Baghdad -- they haven't seen it before," said Claire Hajaj of the UNICEF Iraq Support Centre in Amman. "What they are experiencing now is a reversal of what they are used to. The gap between how people are used to living and how they are living now -- they don't have the coping mechanisms."

While there is the sense among humanitarian workers that malnutrition is still increasing, it is nearly impossible to carry out the kind of population study necessary to get supporting data since UNICEF released its last report in 2006. The moving population and dangerous security situation have made data collection very difficult.

"There is very little that is publicly available that can show us what is happening to children in Iraq over the last 12 to 19 months," Hajaj said. "Do we have the numbers to prove that malnutrition is worse in Iraq now than it was a year ago? Sadly no."

But the risk factors have increased, particularly with poor families losing a caregiver or provider, and a rise in incidents of diarrhea, the top cause of malnutrition, Hajaj said.

UNICEF's latest figures show that 1 in 12 children is underweight and the UNHCR lists the chronic child malnutrition rate at 23 percent.

-- By Talea Miller, Online NewsHour