Hunger in the United States has dropped to its lowest level of the yearlong pandemic, according to Census Bureau data released on Wednesday. Analysts credited government stimulus checks, increased federal food assistance, and the economic recovery for the sharp improvement.
The economic slowdown that accompanied the coronavirus propelled food insecurity to high levels, illustrated by long lines at food banks and surging SNAP caseloads. At its worst, in mid-December, nearly 14 percent of households reported that they sometimes or often had not gotten enough to eat in the preceding seven days.
The figure fell to 8.8 percent in the Census Bureau’s latest Pulse survey of households, conducted from March 17-29, according to Northwestern professor Diane Schanzenbach, who analyzed the data.
“Very good news,” Schanzenbach said on social media, with hunger “at the lowest rate since the pandemic began.” She calculated that there were 6.4 million fewer hungry Americans than in the previous Pulse survey, when the food insecurity rate was 10.7 percent. In the latest survey, 11.2 percent of households with children said they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the preceding week, compared with 14.6 percent in the previous survey and the peak of 18.3 percent last December.
Brookings Institution researcher Lauren Bauer, senior fellow Dottie Rosenbaum of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Schanzenbach cited similar reasons for the lower rates. “It coincides with the rolling out of Economic Impact [stimulus] Payments between March 13 and March 29 — as well as prior relief legislation, which included billions in additional food assistance. And a continuing economic recovery,” said Rosenbaum.
President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law on March 11, clearing the way for payments of up to $1,400 for most people. The new administration also expanded the so-called P-EBT program to include children under age 6 and boosted benefits by 15 percent. And at the end of 2020, Congress temporarily increased food stamp benefits by 15 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in March, the lowest rate in a year. It was 14.8 percent last April.
Claire Zippel, poverty analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said, “We still have a long way to go,” and pointed, as an example, to Census Bureau data showing that nearly 29 percent of households have difficulty paying for such regular expenses as housing and food. “The share of adults whose households didn’t get enough to eat in late March, 8.8 percent, was several times the share of adults who reported having that problem at any point in 2019, 3.4 percent,” she said on social media.