That hasn't changed. If you're referring to the poorest in your particular nation state, consider they're probably not the poorest in the world, which we're all using in some way.
I don't think I have an overly rosy picture of the present. Rather I think your picture of the past is too romantic.
There are more people (in real numbers) starving than ever before. Looking at this in terms of percentages is misleading
Um, per capita is the important metric.
If there are 2 million people on your planet and 1 million of them are starving, then in a few generations there 100 million people and 2 million of them are starving you have drastically reduced the rate of starvation. Malthusian predictions of the past have said that the rate of starvation/bad things happening would increase as the population increased. It has not.
The true number of starving people is not an important metric?