The hunger statistic that shames America

According to a recent Gallup survey, the US had the highest number of people struggling to afford enough food to feed themselves and their families by 2023 among all G7 countries.

One in four (26 percent) Americans surveyed in a new Gallup analysis, titled “US: Leader or Loser in the G7?”, said there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to to buy the food they needed. needed.

In Canada, the percentage of residents who had difficulty affording food within the same period was 17 percent, while in France this fell to 15 percent and in Italy to 14 percent. About 13 percent of Germans could sometimes not afford enough food last year, compared to 9 percent in Britain and 8 percent in Japan.

Although the U.S. has consistently ranked at or tied for the top of the G7 since 2009 for its inability to afford food, 2023 data shows the number of struggling Americans is growing.

“The inability to afford food has never been higher in the U.S. in 2023 since Gallup started tracking this measure in 2006,” Benedict Vigers, a global analytics consultant at Gallup, told me. Newsweek. “This figure comes against the backdrop of recent US food price inflation, which rose sharply in 2022 and remained high last year,” he added.

The Gallup survey results are based on telephone and web interviews conducted in 2023 with random samples of 1,000 adults aged 15 and older living in each of the seven G7 countries.

“Our country is facing a hunger crisis,” said Kelly Horton, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). Newsweek. “Even as one of the richest countries in the world, approximately 44.2 million people live in households experiencing hunger.”

According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on household food security, 12.8 percent of households – about 17 million – were food insecure in 2022, meaning they struggled at some point during the year had to provide enough food for all their relatives due to lack of resources.

Hunger rates are disproportionately worse for households with children and children of color, for single-parent households, and for households in southern and rural areas.

According to the 2022 USDA report, food insecurity was worse among all households with children (17.3 percent of which were food insecure); households with children under 6 years old (16.7 percent); households with children with a single mother (33.1 percent) and a single father (21.2 percent); women living alone (15.1 percent); households headed by a black, non-Hispanic (22.4 percent) or Hispanic (20.8 percent) adult; households with incomes below 100 percent of the poverty line (36.7 percent), 130 percent of the poverty line (35.2 percent), and 185 percent of the poverty line (32.0 percent); and households in major cities (15.3 percent) and non-metropolitan areas (rural; 14.7 percent).

The number of Americans struggling to afford enough food has increased in recent years, a USDA spokesperson said Newsweek. In 2022, it was significantly higher than in 2021, when it had a prevalence of 10.2 percent, and the food insecurity rate was reported from 2017 (11.8 percent) through 2020 (10.5 percent).

Why Americans struggle to put food on the table

The rise in inflation that followed the end of the pandemic and the end of government assistance to struggling families, which characterized the period of the health emergency, played a dramatic role in increasing food insecurity in the US.

“The scaling back of critical COVID-19 pandemic interventions, coupled with the rising costs of food, housing and other basic needs, have taken their toll on families,” Horton shared. Newsweek.

“During the pandemic, lawmakers have made significant investments in anti-hunger and poverty programs to help alleviate hunger for millions of families, but many of these interventions have expired, leaving families wondering where their next meal will come from and whether they will get their be able to pay household bills,” she continued.

“The ‘rent eat first’ and ‘heat or eat’ are phrases we hear all too often. The balancing act of meeting both shelter and nutritional needs is nearly impossible when so much of a person’s income goes toward their bills ,” Horton said.

“Food insecurity is a symptom of economic policies and practices that prevent millions of people in the U.S. from accessing the food they need,” said Emily Engelhard, vice president of Food Security & Wellbeing Research & Insights for Feeding America. Newsweek.

“The way in which changes in the level of food security have coincided with the building and then dismantling of more robust nutrition and financial support programs suggests that such policies and programs are effective in helping people in times of crisis.”

According to Horton, hunger levels in the US would be much worse without federal nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“SNAP helps tens of millions of households put food on the table,” she said. “The Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children provides more than 6.6 million pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children up to five years of age with nutritious food and nutrition education and improves access to health care.”

But no matter how effective they are, these programs do not address the root causes of hunger in America. “They alone cannot end hunger when employment and wages are inadequate, growth is not equitably distributed and people do not have access to affordable housing, health care and adequate disability benefits,” Horton said.

Ending hunger in America is “not a national priority,” Horton said. While she said the Biden administration has “done an excellent job” of supporting programs like SNAP, WIC and school meals, “it will take a presidential administration, Congress and a wide range of diverse stakeholders to catch up with other wealthier countries to catch up. who have made progress in eradicating hunger and food insecurity,” she said.