The latest food insecurity rates in the United States are the worst they’ve been since the Great Recession and are poised to get much worse as politicians push forward SNAP and WIC rollbacks.

Lots of people say, “the food system is broken.”

This is not a new or revolutionary statement to those of us in the food and agriculture space. The conversation usually stops there as we all nod our heads gravely.

But it’s not that simple. Nor do I agree. The food system is NOT broken.

Yes, the food system is abysmal and the way we talk about it isn’t much better… but it is a predictable result of how U.S. politicians decided to build and modify it. The system is not broken. It is working exactly as intended.

Before I go any further, I want to recognize that the data I show and link to in this blog post do break out statistics by race or other contributors to social and economic status, such as having children in the household or veteran status. People of Color experience higher rates of hunger and houselessness due to historical and structural racism. Projected WIC funding shortfalls, predicted to deprive 2 million infants, young children, and their mothers of access to food, will disproportionately harm Black and Hispanic families. It’s important to recognize that when we talk about this data as a whole, communities of color are disproportionately affected.

Intentional policy decisions made post-pandemic to reduce SNAP and let other pandemic-era household budget supports expire despite sky-high food inflation (and housing cost increases), have left more than 40 million Americans and about 40% of babies in the United States more vulnerable to food insecurity and homelessness.

Despite significant wage growth, grocery inflation has outpaced wage growth

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index shows an approximate 20 percent increase in wages and salaries for all civilian workers across all industries and occupations, 2019 through 2023, but food inflation has been higher at 25%.

Even though other categories of goods and services have seen greater price softening or even maintained a higher level of inflation (like car insurance), people are more upset about food inflation because they see those prices more frequently.

Every week, people are seeing these higher prices on their grocery receipts, which is more upsetting than the 25 percent higher car insurance bill they have to pay twice a year.

It’s important to keep in mind that there is a lot of income inequality in the US, which means those in the lower 40 percent of household incomes have been hit much harder by these increases, especially as SNAP rollbacks happened this past year (the Washington Post article missed that).

When it comes down to it, looking at cumulative food inflation relative to wage inflation over the same time period, food inflation is greater.

More than half of all food-insecure households work full time

Having a job doesn't guarantee having food in America. In 2022, households with adults employed full-time made up the largest share of food-insecure households.

Let me say that again: Despite being employed, 55% of food-insecure households in the US had at least one adult working full-time in 2022.

This study shreds the myth that people who do not have food need to get a job. Or need to work harder. Or that they’re lazy. Or that they have spent their money on nonessentials.

Instead, the data show that the majority of America’s people cannot make ends meet. They’re working, but their paychecks cannot cover housing, healthcare, and enough food for themselves or their families.

Food insecurity in U.S. households with older adults increased in 2022

We’re now experiencing the highest recorded rates of food insecurity and the steepest year-over-year increase since the inception of this dataset more than 25 years ago. Older Americans, in particular, have been disproportionately affected, experiencing a surge in food insecurity that surpasses even the levels observed during the Great Recession.

Nearly 1 in 10 older adults did not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs. 9.1% of households with adults aged 65+ experienced food insecurity, struggling to provide enough food due to limited resources, a significant increase compared to 2021 (7.1%) and 2020 (6.9%). Food insecurity was especially high for older adults living alone (11.4% in 2022, up from 9.5% in 2021).

Additionally, 3.4% of households with older adults faced very low food security. According to the USDA-ERS, “Very low food security is a more severe form of food insecurity in which the food intake of some household members was reduced and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year.” This also increased from 2021 (2.8%) and 2020 (2.5%).

Let’s take a look at the results of intentional policy decisions made post-pandemic to reduce SNAP and let other pandemic-era household budget supports expire despite sky-high food inflation (and housing cost increases).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress approved emergency SNAP allotments so that all SNAP households could receive an extra $95 or an additional benefit valued up to the maximum benefit for their household size, whichever value was greater. After the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 ended emergency allotments, all households that received the emergency SNAP benefits returned to their normal amounts in March 2023.

For seniors, that meant going from a monthly food benefit of $281 to just $23 per month. Families of 4 saw their benefits cut by $328 per month.

The result is the highest rates of food insecurity and since this dataset began. This particular subset of the population, older Americans, is experiencing an increase and rate of food insecurity worse than what we saw in the Great Recession.The year over year increase is consistent with 2008 Great Recession… and again, we’re not in a recession.

It’s a similar story with housing

We’ve hit a record 12% year over year increase in houselessness reported by HUD this year. Record low unemployment is not the economic win politicians want it to be if it is paired with record high food insecurity and houselessness, both mostly related to increases among people working full time, but not making enough to afford adequate food or stable housing.

It’s important to call out that during the pandemic, the rise in houeslessness plateaued from 2021 to 2022, thanks to President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. And then it rose again when the money expired. The funds made it possible for people to shelter in place in hotels and convert temporary spaces into permanent housing.

In reality, giving people money when they need it means that they will spend it on necessities to sustain themselves and their families.

These issues are all connected – both in how they show up in the world and how they can be fixed. Public investment can help prevent houselessness, just as it can alleviate people going hungry. But instead of prioritizing food and shelter, we’re seeing sweeping and incredibly unconscionable cruelty by policy in the U.S.

These actions have real, life-altering consequences for families across our country. What if politicians learned from the successful policies that helped people keep their bellies full and bodies sheltered, rather than seeing them as once-and-done? What if emergency programs turned into need-based programs? What if it was the American way to help people when they need it?

Deliberate policy choices made in the aftermath of the pandemic have gotten us here. By curtailing SNAP benefits and allowing other pandemic-era household budget supports to lapse, despite skyrocketing food inflation and rising housing costs, politicians have exacerbated food insecurity across the nation.

It’s not just that politicians have allowed this crisis to happen. They have engineered it to happen. Politicians have built it this way to make people more desperate so they take jobs that do not pay enough to cover the new costs of food and housing. Most food insecure households ARE led by Americans working full time.

These are hard truths to reckon with, especially if you have grown up in the U.S. hearing the notion that everyone can achieve the American Dream, if only they have the willpower, work ethic, and ability to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

This is a manufactured failing. We can also manufacture fixing this.

Reference links to consider:

If we’re not in a recession, why did food insecurity increase at rates not seen since 2008?