Media Contact:
Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118
Statement Attributable to Crystal FitzSimons, President,
Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
WASHINGTON, September 16, 2026 — FRAC is deeply disturbed by the latest poverty numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millions of people continue to face the impossible choices between paying for food, housing, and medicine. These challenges are compounded by the harmful policy decisions being made in Washington that weaken the very programs designed to reduce poverty and food insecurity, and send our country in the wrong direction.
According to the latest Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) report, in 2025:
- 44.3 million (13.1 percent) people lived in poverty, up from 42.8 million or 12.9 percent in the previous year
- 9.7 million children (1 in 7.5 or 13.4 percent) lived in poverty in 2025
- Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by poverty. In 2025, poverty rates were 20.3 percent for Black individuals, 20.0 percent for Latinx individuals, 18.1 percent for Native American and Alaska Native individuals, 12.8 percent for Asian individuals, and 9.2 percent for White, non-Hispanic individuals.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), school meals, afterschool meals, Summer Nutrition Programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provided important support that kept millions from falling deeper into hardship.
In 2025 alone, SNAP lifted 3.1 million people out of poverty and helped 42 million people afford food.
Despite SNAP’s many strengths, the budget reconciliation law, H.R. 1, slashed $187 billion from the program. Since then, nearly 5.5 million people — including children, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities — have lost access to critical food benefits.
Communities in every corner of America are feeling the effects. Older adults are skipping meals, families are struggling to cover both food and rent, and people are turning to overwhelmed food banks because millions no longer have SNAP to help stretch their grocery budgets. Charity and local governments cannot do it alone. Starting Oct. 1, states will be responsible for covering 75 percent of SNAP administrative expenses, forcing states to make impossible decisions between paying for transportation, education, or food assistance.
Policymakers should be advancing solutions that connect eligible households to federal nutrition programs, not creating new barriers to participation.
Congress must heed the warning in the data and reverse the harmful SNAP cuts and administrative and benefit cost shifts, and invest in proven solutions that help families put food on the table, reduce poverty, and improve local economies.
It is time to build a nation free from hunger.