Food insecurity can be defined as a lack of food intake or the inability to provide food for everyone in a household due to a lack of money or other resources.^1,2 While food insecurity is not defined as hunger, but it is a measure that can be used to assess the risk of hunger.² According to Feeding America, currently, 1 in 9 people experience hunger in the United States.² Food insecurity can affect anyone; it has probably affected you at some point in your life. It can affect individuals who are unemployed, under-employed, those in large households, college students, etc. All it takes is one major life event that leads to a personal financial struggle. Do you pay your power bill, or do you purchase food? That is all it takes.

In our current environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people have lost their jobs or have had labor hours curtailed due to shutdowns for health and safety reasons.³ People are unable to pay rent and utilities, and unable to put food on their table. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that 1 in 4 households have experienced food insecurity.³ In 2019, as reported by the United States Department of Agriculture, 13.7 million U.S. households were food insecure. This translates to 35.2 million people being food insecure.⁴ While the 2019 data were trending downward from previous years, food insecure numbers will likely increase due to ongoing pandemic.³

References

¹ Nord M, Andrews M, and Carlson S. Household Food Security in the United States, 2005. Washington: USDA Economic Research Service; 2006. Report No.: ERR-29.

² “Food Insecurity” Feeding America, https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity

³ Silva, Christianna. “Food Insecurity In The U.S. By The Numbers.” NPR, 27 September 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers

⁴ Coleman-Jensen A, Rabbitt MP, Gregory CA, and Singh A. Household Food Security in the United States in 2019. Washington: USDA Economic Research Service; 2020. Report No.: ERR-275.