The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its annual report on household food security on Wednesday, offering a key baseline for understanding the pandemic’s impact on hunger across the United States. Nearly 4 percent of U.S. households sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in 2019, including 5 million children, according to the report. Although those numbers are significant, they are the lowest on record since the USDA’s Economic Research Service began tracking these statistics in 1998. By August of this year, however, those numbers had more than doubled.
The 2019 findings, coupled with data from July and August, highlight the extent to which the pandemic has undercut nearly a decade of progress in reducing food insecurity, particularly among children.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent biweekly Household Pulse Survey, about 10 percent of adults reported that their households sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat between Aug. 19 and Aug. 31. The situation is particularly dire for Black and Latino adults, 19 and 17 percent of whom, respectively, reported being short of food. During that same period, between 9 and 14 percent of parents reported that their children sometimes or often hadn’t eaten enough in the past week because they couldn’t afford it. Although the USDA report reflects a 12-month calendar period, the more than twofold jump in the rate of food-insecure households in 2020 illustrates how much hardship has deepened during the pandemic.
In the previous round of Household Pulse data, which covered the period from July 16 to July 21, 12.1 percent of American adults reported that their households sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat. The rate was more than twice as high for Black and Latino respondents, 21 percent of whom were food-insecure. During that period, 11 to 20 percent of adults with children reported that their kids didn’t eat enough due to economic hardship — an estimated 9 to 17 million children.
A change in the U.S. Census Bureau’s survey methodology for August makes it difficult to directly compare the July and August data. But analysts say that together — and particularly in contrast to the relatively low 2019 numbers — they reveal the pandemic’s persistent economic toll on millions of Americans.
“As an order of magnitude, it’s clear that hardship is way up from 2019,” said Joseph Llobrera, director of research for the food assistance team at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which has been analyzing Household Pulse Data since the survey was launched in April.
Advocates say the sharp rise in hunger from 2019 to 2020 should catalyze government action, particularly for children. “Childhood hunger is an imminently solvable problem. Before Covid-19, that goal was within reach,” Lisa Davis, senior vice president of the anti-hunger nonprofit Share Our Strength, said in a statement. “With more than 10 years of progress erased over just a few months, Congress and the administration must act now.” The “skinny” relief package released Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which failed to make it through the Senate Thursday, included no food or rental assistance, despite persistent economic hardship.
Davis pointed to federal tools that would help alleviate hunger as the pandemic drags on, including extending the nutrition waivers and flexibilities that allow children, regardless of age or income, to get free meals, through the end of the school year. She also advocated extending Pandemic-EBT, which is set to expire Sept. 30, and increasing SNAP benefits by 15 percent — something Democrats have called for consistently throughout the crisis.