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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as "a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life."

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ERS plays a leading role in Federal research on food security and food security measurement in U.S. households and communities and provides data access and technical support to social science scholars to facilitate their research on food security. ERS research focuses on:

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What is the difference between low food security and very low food security? 

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What is the difference between low food security and very low food security? 

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Low food security is when the food that is being consumed is of low-quality or is not appealing. There are not many choices, but there is typically enough food.

Very low food security is when food is not available and causes someone to eat less because there are no ways to provide for oneself.

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https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/understand-food-insecurity/

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Food insecurity can be found in every community. The website linked below is a useful tool to explore data about food insecurity in the United States.

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Copyright © 2021 Feeding America. All Rights Reserved. Feeding America is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit recognized by the IRS.
Tax ID Number: 36-3673599

Photos associated with client stories feature the actual person referenced. Other images are for illustrative purposes only.

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Hunger & Poverty in the United States | Map the Meal Gap

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The food insecurity rate in the United States was 10.9% in 2019. Explore a map of hunger statistics in the United States at the state and local level.

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What are the effects of food insecurity? 

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What are the effects of food insecurity? 

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- health complications
- damage to the ability of a child to learn and grow
- difficult situations for senior citizens

People are having to make difficult decisions due to limited resources:
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger

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Are college students being affected by food insecurity? 

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Are college students being affected by food insecurity? 

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Yes, research shows that more college students that one would think suffer from food insecurity. According to The Washington Post, researchers blame "ballooning college costs, inadequate aid packages, and growing enrollment among low-income students" along with the "colleges' unwillingness to admit they have a hunger problem." More information about this topic and the article, "The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don't have enough to eat", can be found in the link attached below.

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Caleb Torres, a George Washington University student, regularly skipped meals his freshman year because he didn't have enough money to buy food. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Caleb Torres lost seven pounds his freshman year of college - and not because he didn't like the food in the dining hall. A first-generation college student, barely covering tuition, Torres ran out of grocery money halfway through the year and began skipping meals as a result.

He'd stretch a can of SpaghettiOs over an entire day. Or he'd scout George Washington University campus for events that promised free lunch or snacks. Torres told no one what he was going through, least of all his single mom.

"She had enough things to worry about," he said.

Now a senior and living off-campus, in a housing situation that supplies most of his meals,Torres is finally talking about his experience with the hunger problem on America's college campuses: a quiet, insidious epidemic that researchers say threatens millions of students every year.

According to a first-of-its-kind survey released Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, 36 percent of students at 66 surveyed colleges and universities do not get enough to eat, and a similar number lack a secure place to live.

The report, which is the first to include students from two-year, four-year, private and public universities, including GWU, found that nearly 1 in 10 community college students have gone a whole day without eating in the past month. That number was 6 percent among university students. Any institution was invited to participate in the survey, though the sample was not designed to be representative of colleges nationwide.

Researchers blame ballooning college costs, inadequate aid packages and growing enrollment among low-income students - as well as some colleges' unwillingness to admit they have a hunger problem. College hunger is not a new issue, researchers caution. But it appears to be growing worse, and not merely because college is getting more expensive.

"Prices have gone up over time," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy at Temple and the lead author of the report. "But the rising price is just a piece. This is a systemic problem."

Goldrick-Rab's report is based on data from 43,000 students at 66 schools and used the Department of Agriculture's assessment for measuring hunger. That means the thousands of students it classifies as having "low food security" aren't merely avoiding the dining hall or saving lunch money for beer: They're skipping meals, or eating smaller meals, because they don't have enough money for food.

On top of that, the report found, 46 percent of community college students and 36 percent of university students struggle to pay for housing and utilities. In the past year, 12 percent of community college students and 9 percent of university students have slept in shelters or in places not intended as housing, or did not know from one day to the next where they would sleep.

Measuring college hunger and homelessness is difficult. Researchers depend on universities to distribute the surveys and on a self-selecting group of students to fill them out.

Goldrick-Rab says those constraints make it likely that college hunger is actually more prevalent than her data show. There may also be more variability between different areas of the country or different types of institutions, though several education policy analysts not involved with the survey said they believe this is the best national estimate available.

The numbers align with other recent surveys on the issue. The University of California has found that 40 percent of its students suffer food insecurity. At four state universities in Illinois, that number is 35 percent.

"Not a single university administrator wanted to acknowledge this was an issue five years ago," said Rachel Sumekh, the chief executive of Swipe Out Hunger, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit. "But the numbers are amazing. It helps us make the case to universities that they need to do something about this."

Experts say the factors underlying campus hunger are complex. More low-income students are enrolling in college, thanks to expanded needs-based scholarship and grant programs, a move away from standardized test scores as part of the application process, and other initiatives designed to recruit more diverse students.

But once they get on campus, low-income students often find that the patchwork of grants and scholarships they've assembled are not enough to cover all of their expenses.

"There has been an uptick in low-income students on campus, but there hasn't been a corresponding change in university policy to welcome and prepare for these students," said Anthony Abraham Jack, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In the 2013-2014 academic year, room and board for the average undergraduate totaled $9,929, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a 50 percent increase over 20 years prior.

Those figures are higher for private and four-year colleges. And they don't include incidental expenses, from printing and laundry fees to nightly room charges assessed against students who can't leave for spring break or summer vacation.

On top of that, students have fewer ways to provide for themselves: Competition for low-wage jobs has increased, and strict work requirements for food stamp recipients mean that many cannot rely on the federal safety net. Even higher income students who don't have their parents' full financial support can find themselves facing difficult choices.

"We know for some students, even one small financial problem can throw them off course," said Tim Miller, the associate dean of students in the Division of Student Affairs at George Washington, where Torres is a senior. "That is serious. We want to help students overcome those issues."

With a 2017-2018 tuition of more than $53,000, and a brand-new food court hawking poke bowls and yogurt topped with rose petals, GWU does not outwardly look like a place where students encounter hunger.

But mixed in among the Canada Goose-clad undergrads are students such as Torres and Emma Montero, a sophomore, who are struggling. Montero works three jobs, including a federal work-study gig designed to help low-income students cover expenses, but neither her wages nor a series of grants, scholarships and low-interest loans have made ends meet, she said.

"I'm not going hungry per se, but there are days I'm just not going to eat," she said. "Today, I am kind of hesitant to buy food, because I have less than $100 and I need to do laundry. Do I want to do my laundry or do I want to eat today? That is the kind of question I'm dealing with."

To alleviate these issues, GW opened a food pantry in 2016, stocked with canned goods, produce and day-old bagels, tucked behind an unmarked door in the same food court where students flock for poke. Hundreds of schools have recently launched these sorts of pantries: Membership in the College and University Food Bank Alliance has swelled from 15 in 2012 to more than 600 today.

Colleges are taking other steps as well. Some have altered their dining plans to cover more meals or to offer more low-cost options, or have begun distributing free dining hall vouchers to students who need them. Others have partnered with nonprofits to redistribute unused meals to hungry students.

Michigan State University, the first school to establish an on-campus pantry, has begun screening students for food insecurity during routine visits to its campus health center. In New York, St. John's University has started advertising an emergency fund that disburses small, one-time grants to students with unexpected expenses.

"This is top-of-mind right now on many campuses," said Amelia Parnell, the vice president for research and policy at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. "When we think about reasons students drop out, financial issues - like the ability to pay for food and housing - are one of them."

But advocates say higher education is still not doing enough to solve student hunger. There is persistent skepticism about the depth of the problem at some institutions. Others have proven skittish about opening a food pantry or even surveying students, concerned with the message it will send prospective students and donors.

"All the great hunger efforts underway are not even half a drop in an empty bucket given the scale of this crisis," said Wick Sloane, a writing professor at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston who has advocated for low-income students. "All of us in higher ed know this."

Sloane and other advocates have called on the federal government to provide free or reduced-cost meals at colleges, as is already done in primary and secondary schools. This fall, the federal Government Accountability Office is scheduled to release a study on the extent of college hunger, which gives advocates hope that lawmakers are paying attention to the issue.

Advocates would like to see changes to the food stamp program to make it more available to college students. There are also calls to reevaluate the financial aid process, with particular attention to how the government assesses "need."

But unfortunately, those changes will come too late for many. Torres will graduate from GW in May. With little initial support at school, Torres moved off-campus sophomore year on the advice of a friend, renting a room in the home of a middle-aged couple known for helping down-on-their-luck students.

Torres says he hasn't worried about food since then - and that he feels "blessed every day." But he hopes future college students will have other, more institutional support to keep them from going hungry.

"We're in a time where there is going to be a lot of change," he said. "And I'm pleased with where I see it going."

This story has been updated.

For the poor in the Ivy League, a full ride isn't always what they imagined

Dozens more selective colleges join pledge to add lower-income students

Study: Food stamp benefits are already too low in 99 percent of U.S. counties

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The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don't have enough to eat

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Caleb Torres lost seven pounds his freshman year of college - and not because he didn't like the food in the dining hall. A first-generation college student, barely covering tuition, Torres ran out of grocery money halfway through the year and began skipping meals as a result.

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While most Americans will be grateful for second and third helpings this Thanksgiving, there's one surprising group who struggle to find a first helping every day: students at some of the nation's top universities.

"I can't go to the grocery store to buy breakfast because if I use this money I'm not going to be able to use it for something else like dinner or lunch," said Damian Hernandez, 24, who graduated from Columbia University earlier this year.

Hernandez, who is from Chicago, was one of thousands of students who are considered food insecure, meaning they don't always know where their next meal is coming from, or if it's coming at all. With the high cost of tuition, living and meal plans, food insecurity on college campuses poses a real threat to student livelihood, especially those who are low income and lack access to government assistance programs.

Researchers from Temple University surveyed 86,000 students from over 100 institutions, primarily at public universities and community colleges, and 17 percent said they had been homeless within the past year while 45 percent said they had been food insecure in the past 30 days.

"This is to shed light on the extent of the problem that a lot of college leaders or college administrators don't really know about," said Vanessa Coca, a co-author of the study and the assistant director of research at the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University. "They might know of a couple of exceptions, but they think of exceptions, right?"

According to data from the College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFA), 30 percent of college students are food insecure.

College meal plans for students are often too expensive for low-income students. At Columbia, a meal plan for first-year students has to be paid up front. That's $2,802 per semester, $11.40 per meal - about $34 a day. Students who can't afford a meal plan visit the food pantry at Columbia, which opened just over two years ago.

"I know that I have this as my safety blanket," Hernandez said. "If I ever need food I don't have to worry about where I'm where I'm going to get it from next week or what I'm going to do to feed myself."

At the University of California, Berkeley, students line up to an hour before their food pantry opens. The pantry serves approximately 1,000 students per week, including Reniel Del Rosario, 22, who has used the pantry for the past four years.

"After awhile, going to a 99-cent store or the dollar store for groceries wasn't ideal," Del Rosario, who is from Vallejo, California and graduated in the 2019 class, said. "Being able to get fresh produce and things that are more nutritional helped me a lot."

This particular food pantry serves fresh produce from local farmer's markets free for students, offering a healthy alternative to instant ramen and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

As a full-time student while working over 20 hours a week at his work-study job, Del Rosario was often confronted with a tradeoff between spending his money on food and other needs. He budgeted a total of $50 per week on groceries.

"I feel like I did have to go hungry," he said, and sometimes "had to limit myself to the amount of food for the week because I had to save money for other things." Most of those other costs went toward class materials and paying for rent in Berkeley, one of the most expensive metro areas in the country.

Although his budget did not deter him from spending time with friends, he would often opt to accompany them to lunch but not buy anything - "because it would be $5 for a boba drink or $10 for lunch. That's one fifth of my grocery budget already!"

Berkeley has approximately 30,000 undergraduate students, 65 percent of whom receive financial aid. Del Rosario said that the food pantry is not being used to its full capacity because many students feel embarrassed about needing help.

"We are trying to reduce the stigma. It's OK to get some help, to get some assistance," he said. "We are all human beings, and food is a basic need."

While food pantries at college campuses start to address the issue, the authors of the report said that college administrators should do more - like letting students know whether they are eligible to receive Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, available to millions of low-income individuals, also known as food stamps.

Some lawmakers have responded with legislation aimed at helping ensure that college students' basic needs are met so that they can focus on their studies. For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill this past summer making it easier for low-income college students to qualify for CalFresh, the state's food assistance program. For the first time in 2020, the federal government will collect nationally representative data on the characteristics of students in postsecondary education instead of relying on individual studies.

However, Congress has not taken action on the proposed College Student Hunger Act of 2019, introduced in July. The bill would allow more college students to participate in SNAP among other benefits.

At Southern Connecticut State University, surveys conducted over the last few years showed that about 30 percent of the 10,000-student population falls into the category of food insecure. The school is currently in the midst of setting up a food pantry of its own.

"There's a definite need for it," said Sarah Rogers, who works with AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service to America) and was hired by SCSU to lead the efforts in creating a food pantry on campus. "Students who were worried about hunger, homelessness, medical care expenses and life were having a hard time in the classroom and were struggling to finish."

While the location for the pantry is set, the next step in the process includes holding a donation drive to bring in food and resources. Once the pantry is stocked and ready, students will take over all operations. Rogers hopes that the presence of the pantry, set to open in January, will make students feel more comfortable in asking for assistance.

Hernandez was among those students who initially felt hesitant to ask for help. He earned himself a scholarship to attend Columbia after transferring from a community college. "I'm already lucky enough and privileged enough to get a scholarship that allows me to come here but I shouldn't ask for more," he remembered thinking. "I should be able to secure my own food."

Tuition alone for undergraduate students at Columbia University is $58,920 a year, not including housing, books, transportation or food. Hernandez's scholarship was not enough to cover the cost of living in New York City.

But the food pantry saved him from accumulating even more student debt. "I already take out enough loans to help me with my rent," he said. "Luckily this stops me from taking out more loans."

The CUFA reports that over 640 schools around the country, from community colleges to Ivy League universities, have food pantries on campus. At Columbia and Berkeley, any student with a school ID is welcome to the pantry and encouraged to take various food items for free.

Both Hernandez and Del Rosario spent years volunteering at their respective pantries to help other students facing similar circumstances."I wanted to be one of those people that tries to make those differences on campus," said Hernandez. "I'm not sure if I'm doing enough, but I try to do my best to help out other people with food insecurities."

For Del Rosario, the pantry was more than a place for food. As an art major, it also served as his inspiration: "When I started volunteering at the pantry, one day I was restocking and became obsessed with this thing of quantity," he remembered.

This led Del Rosario to create a series of ceramic replicates of consumer products, such as canned food, snacks, and meals on plates. The Berkeley dining hall showcased his work in an expedition.

Del Rosario credits the pantry's tightknit community as his motivation for giving back.

"I think volunteering at the pantry has been some of the most fun I've had in undergrad," he said." "It made my day."

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Hunger on campus: The fight against student food insecurity

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While most Americans will be grateful for second and third helpings this Thanksgiving, there's one surprising group who struggle to find a first helping every day: students at some of the nation's top universities.