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Anti-hunger and child nutrition advocacy organizations expressed concerns about the second consecutive year of food insecurity increasing among children following the USDA’s latest report. In total, 3.2 million households with children were food insecure in 2023, according to the USDA.
The USDA defines a food insecure household as one that has been “uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food” at times throughout the year.
The USDA findings confirm the Food Research & Action Center’s warning that “Without greater investments in anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs, hunger in this country will continue to climb,” said Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of FRAC, in a statement.
FitzSimons said the spike in food insecurity nationwide was mainly driven by inflation and the rollback of COVID-19 pandemic relief initiatives. She further called on Congress to pass legislation allowing all students to receive free school meals, just as eight states have already done on their own.
A permanent expanded and inclusive child tax credit should be codified by Congress, as well, FitzSimons said. President Joe Biden has previously called for a similar measure in his State of the Union addresses.
Jason Gromley, senior director for childhood hunger and poverty nonprofit Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign, pointed to USDA food insecurity data data revealing racial inequities. He noted in a statement that “food insecurity rates are substantially higher than the national average for Black households with children (27.5%) and Hispanic households with children (26%).”
Gromley added that the trend of rising child hunger following the end of pandemic-era investments is “tragic.”
“What makes this report more disappointing is that we know how to end childhood hunger,” Gromley said. “Just five years ago, we were seeing historic drops in food insecurity. … Now that those investments have been rolled back, that progress is being erased, and we’re seeing the dire need to address the root causes of hunger.”