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Media Contact:  

Jordan Baker                                                                        
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118 

Statement attributable to Crystal FitzSimons, president, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)

WASHINGTON, December 31, 2025 — The latest Household Food Security report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reveals that 47.9 million people lived in food-insecure households last year. These findings highlight a crisis that is set to deepen as the deepest cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history take effect.

Key findings from the ERS report:

• 1 in 7ouseholds (13.7 percent) in America experienced food insecurity, or lack of access to an affordable, nutritious diet, in 2024.
• 14.1 million children lived in households that experienced food insecurity in 2024, a slight increase from the 13.8 million children reported in 2023.
• More single-parent households headed by women experienced food insecurity at 36.8 percent, nearly 2 percent higher than 2023 (34.7 percent).
• Rates of food insecurity remained high for Black (24.4 percent) and Latinx (20.2 percent) households. The rate for Black households was more than double the 10.1 percent rate for White, non-Latinx households.
• Households in the Southern region continued to experience the highest rates of food insecurity at 15.0 percent.
• Food insecurity was significantly higher in urban areas (16.0 percent) and rural areas (15.9 percent) compared to suburban areas (11.9 percent).

For more than three decades, this report has been the gold standard for understanding the struggle that millions of families face to put food on the table. Yet, the Trump administration has announced that after this year it will no longer issue this annual benchmark, which will impact the ability to track food insecurity in the U.S. and the impact of the SNAP cuts included in the budget reconciliation law. The ERS report is the most comprehensive tool we have for annual, nationally representative, and state-level estimates that capture food insecurity across critical subpopulations, and no other national survey is readily capable of taking its place.

The report informs critical policy decisions that keep children fed through the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program, and afterschool, child care and summer meals, and that lift millions out of poverty through programs like SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). These programs are critical to ensuring tens of millions of people, including children, working families, veterans, and older adults, get the nutrition they need.

The Food Assurance and Security Act (H.R. 6252) was introduced in November to protect this critical report. Eliminating this annual data will not end food insecurity, it will only hide the struggle that millions of families face to put food on the table. Congress must pass this bill without delay, along with the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025, which would repeal the devastating cuts made to SNAP in the budget reconciliation law.

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The Food Research & Action Center improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Threads,  and Bluesky.