Food insecurity on the rise, Census data show

• Food insecurity is rising in the United States, Census data show.  

• Over 26 million Americans did not have enough to eat over a seven-day period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse Survey. 

• The rise in food insecurity comes amid cuts to social safety net programs like SNAP, the child tax credit and free school lunch.  

More Americans don’t have enough food to eat, U.S. Census data show. 

The number of Americans who did not have enough to eat over a seven-day period rose from over 18 million in August 2021 to over 26 million in August 2023, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey.  

That represents a roughly 45 percent increase over the past two years.  

“These numbers are shocking,” said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.  

Berg added in a statement that the national anti-hunger nonprofit believes hunger rates are rising due to cuts in social safety measures like SNAP, universal school meals and the expanded child tax credit.  

Congress did not renew the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit last year. Last September, Congress also chose to end a federal pandemic-era program that gave free school lunches to all public school students.  

And pandemic-era SNAP benefits ended across all 50 states in March of this year, while inflation remained at a 40–year high.  

According to the Census survey, the primary reason people said they did not have enough food during the week was because they could not afford to buy any more.  

“No one should be shocked that when the government takes away food, as well as money to buy food, hunger increases,” Berg said.