In 2019, "food insecurity" was the lowest it had been in twenty years, at 10.5% of U.S. households. The U.S. Agriculture Department defines "food security" as having "access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members."
In 1999, 10.1% of U.S. households were food insecure. Food insecurity hovered between 10% and 12% for years, then rose in 2008 and peaked in 2011, in the wake of the Great Recession, at 14.9%. Food insecurity then began declining until this year.
The coronavirus-related economic slowdown has increased hunger levels in 2020. Feeding America, a nonprofit coordinating relief efforts, projects that 15.6% of Americans, 50.4 million people, will face food insecurity in 2020. The highest rate is expected in Mississippi, at 22.6%. California is projected to have the greatest number of food-insecure people, at 6.2 million.