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Was the rate of 'food insecurity' in the US at its lowest level in 20 years before the coronavirus pandemic?

Monday, November 30, 2020
By Lauralei Singsank
YES

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.

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