Child Food Insecurity in America
About 19% U.S. children (13.4 million kids) lacked reliable access to adequate food in 2022. This rate has risen nearly 50% since 2021 and represents an eight-year high.
What Is Child Food Insecurity?
Child food insecurity occurs when children lack the resources needed to enable dependable access to enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle. Food-insecure families are often unable to afford nutritious foods in sufficient quantity for all family members.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) identifies four general levels of food security from high to very low. Children in households with very low food security may have to skip meals or go a whole day without eating due to limited money or resources. Conversely, everyone in a food secure household has consistent access to healthy meals and no one worries about affording groceries or running out of food.
While most American households (87%) are food secure, child food insecurity continues to be a major concern in the United States. In 2022, 17% of all households with children — representing 13.4 million kids — were grappling with food insecurity, according to the USDA. In some of these households, only adults were food insecure. In other households, children were directly impacted.
The USDA estimates that 44.2 million people lived in food insecure households nationwide in 2022. Since these estimates do not include homeless families, the actual number of children impacted by food insecurity is even larger.
Food insecurity has far reaching implications for children, families and society as a whole. Families who have difficulties buying adequate food also struggle to pay for housing, child care, health care and other basic needs. These families sometimes have to make difficult choices between buying food, making rent or paying for medical bills, for example. Food insecurity is a reflection of larger economic and societal inequities, with families of color disproportionately affected. Food insecurity in children warrants particular attention as it is linked to numerous adverse outcomes that can have lasting effects, including developmental disruptions, school problems and physical and mental health issues. Fortunately, family food insecurity can be reduced by strengthening safety net programs, improving household financial stability and addressing systemic inequities.
Child Hunger Statistics in America
Childhood hunger is a key public health issue and a potential result of food insecurity. While the USDA does not measure hunger, it has measured food insecurity for more than two decades.
After improving most of the past decade, the nation’s share of children in food-insecure households took a sharp turn in the wrong direction in 2022. This statistic increased nearly 50% — from 13% of all kids in 2021 to 19% of all kids in 2022, according to the USDA. The difference equates to 4.1 million more children in the United States facing food insecurity in 2022.
Two factors helped to fuel this change:
- Food costs increased sharply in 2022, rising 12% from December 2021 to December 2022, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Researchers have linked rising food prices to increased food hardships for many people.
- Pandemic relief measures, including the expanded Child Tax Credit, expired. The loss of this support contributed to historic increases in poverty, leaving families with fewer resources for food.
Consider this child hunger statistic from October 2022: More than one in four (28%) U.S. households with children reported that kids were not eating enough because they could not afford food. In 13 states, this statistic was true for more than 30% of households with kids.
Among the 44 ranked states, Michigan had the highest share of households with children not eating enough at 43%, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® Data Center.
Other child and youth hunger statistics in America include:
- The number of children experiencing very low food insecurity — which includes going without food — has increased from 521,000 children in 2021 to over 780,000 children in 2022.
- In November 2022, 13% of U.S. households with children reported that kids did not have enough food to eat in the past week, which is a measure of food insufficiency.
At the state level, the child food insufficiency rate was highest in Mississippi (26%), followed by Kansas, Nevada and New Mexico (all 20%).
- In four states, at least 20% of youth and young adults, ages 18 to 24, did not have enough to eat in the last week,according to Oct. 5‑Nov. 14 2022 data available for 21 states in the KIDS COUNT® Data Center. These states were: California (20%), Louisiana (22%), Iowa (26%) and Kentucky (29%). If food insufficiency occurs during the critical development window from adolescence until around age 24, it can have detrimental consequences.
Causes of Child Hunger in America
While many factors contribute to child hunger and food insecurity, Feeding America — a nonprofit network of 200 food banks nationwide — identifies common causes as:
- Poverty, unemployment and low wages, which affect the ability to pay for food and other basic living expenses. Even if parents are working full-time, they may not earn enough to afford adequate food. Unsurprisingly, individuals living in poverty have the highest rates of food insecurity. In 2022, 37% of households living below the federal poverty level were also food insecure, compared to only 7% of those earning 185% or more of the poverty level (which was $29,678 for a family of two adults and two children in 2022), according to the USDA.
- A lack of affordable housing, which causes families to pay higher housing costs and leaves fewer funds available for food and other needs.
- Systemic racism and discrimination, which are root causes of economic disadvantages for people of color. For decades, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Latino and multiracial households have been more likely to live in poverty and experience food insecurity.
Where families live affects their ability to obtain adequate food, as well. Across the United States, the vast majority (90%) of counties with the highest food insecurity rates are rural, according to Feeding America. Access to grocery stores or other healthy food options can be difficult in rural areas, particularly if families do not have transportation. Jobs in rural communities often pay lower wages, too. Families living in tribal communities and in high-poverty, non-white neighborhoods also face higher risks of limited access to quality food.
Public policy, too, has a substantial influence on childhood food insecurity. As a key example, after the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit was enacted, millions of children were lifted out of poverty and the food insecurity rate fell to a two-decade low for families with kids. Then, as this and other pandemic-era policies ended (including temporary food benefits), the child food insecurity rate soared. State and local policies can influence food security in similar ways.
Additionally, food insecurity rates tend to rise and fall with larger economic forces, including recessions and inflation, as noted above with food prices rising in 2022.
Effects of Child Hunger in America
How Food Insecurity Affects Child Development
Eating healthy, nutritious meals is vital to a child’s physical, mental social and academic development. When children have enough food, according to Feeding America, they can concentrate on important things, like doing well in school, being physically active and graduating.
Decades of research has linked child food insecurity to a number of negative health outcomes and even lifelong consequences.
A study in the journal Pediatrics reported that, relative to their food-secure peers, children in food-insecure homes are more likely to have
- poor overall health;
- reduced immune system functioning;
- more communicable diseases
- poor body weight outcomes;
- asthma;
- higher rates of emergency room visits and health care use; and
- internalizing behavior problems, such as anxiety and depression.
This study found that food insecurity uniquely affects child health even after controlling for other factors like household composition, income level and neighborhood safety.
Food insecurity derails a student’s concentration, memory, mood and motor skills — all of which children need to succeed in school, per the No Kid Hungry campaign. On average, students who eat school breakfast score 17.5% higher on standardized math tests and attend 1.5 more days of school each year relative to students who start the day hungry, the campaign reports.
Demographics of Children Facing Food Insecurity
Food hardship does not affect children equally. Racial and ethnic inequities play a major role in how likely children are to experience hunger and food insecurity.
For example: Children in families of color are more likely to not eat enough because their households cannot afford food, compared to kids in white families. In the fall of 2022, kids were not eating enough in nearly two in five Black (38%), Latino (37%) and multiracial (37%) households with children, and in nearly one-third (31%) of Asian households with children, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center. These figures were well above the rate for white households with kids (21%).
In 2024, the USDA released food insecurity statistics for more racial and ethnic groups, including American Indian and Alaska Native households, by combining data across 2016–2021. These statistics show similar disparities:
- 28% of American Indian or Alaska Native households with kids were food insecure, the highest rate of all racial or ethnic groups and almost twice the national rate (15%) for all households with kids during this period. Further, a 2022 research review found that the average food insecurity prevalence rate was even higher — 44% — for American Indian and Alaska Native households with kids.
- 25% of Black households with children experienced food insecurity, more than double the rate of their white counterparts (11%).
- 20% to 25% of multiracial households with children were food insecure. The USDA reported rates for three multiracial groups: American Indian-white (25%), Black-white (20%) and other multiracial combinations (20%).
- 21% of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander households with kids faced food insecurity.
- 20% of Latino households with children were food insecure. Among these families, the USDA reported wide variation by country or region of origin, including Central America, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador and South America.
- 7% of Asian households with kids experienced food insecurity, although wide disparities exist here, too, by country of origin, including India, China, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and others.
Child food insufficiency rates illustrate similar inequities, as shown in fall 2022 U.S. Census Bureau data on the KIDS COUNT Data Center. That is, the share of households with kids that did not have enough to eat in the past week differs widely by racial and ethnic group:
- 23% of Black households
- 22% of multiracial households
- 20% of Latino households
- 10% of white households
- 5% of Asian households
As noted, such disparities in access to sufficient food are rooted in systemic discrimination, racism and oppression of populations of color. The nonprofit Food Resource & Action Center reports that:“Decades of housing segregation, employment discrimination, and over-policing are a few of the wide-ranging barriers that have resulted in higher levels of food insecurity among communities of color.”
In addition to race and ethnicity, other demographic factors also place families at increased risk of food insecurity, according to the USDA. Families at greater risk include:
- Single-mother families. Nationwide, one in three (33%) of households headed by single moms experienced food insecurity in 2022, about double the national average (17%) for all households with kids that year.
- Those with foreign-born parents. In particular, U.S. citizen children of foreign-born mothers have a higher risk of food insecurity compared to kids of U.S.-born moms, regardless of race or ethnicity. Language barriers may be a factor for these families, with research showing that food insecurity is twice as high for children with limited English-proficient parents than kids with English-fluent parents.
- Families in which an adult has a disability. For households where an adult has a disability, 23% were food insecure in 2016–2021. This rate is far lower, at 8%, for households where no adult has a disability.
Addressing Food Insecurity in Children
Childhood food insecurity can be reduced by removing barriers that prevent certain families from accessing adequate food, and by strengthening systems and policies to facilitate such access. For instance, Feeding America and other expert sources recommend that leaders:
- Address systemic inequities continuing to fuel large racial and ethnic disparities in economic and food hardship;
- Bolster safety net policies that promote family financial well-being, such as permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit;
- Strengthen the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) and increase participation this and other food assistance programs; and
- Improve access to other grocery and child nutrition programs, such as the Summer Food Service Program and other school meal programs for children.
Resources on Child Food Insecurity and Economic Instability in America Today
Learn more about child food insecurity, which groups are most affected and possible solutions with resources from the Casey Foundation.
KIDS COUNT Data Center Resources
- Children living in food-insecure households
- Households with children not eating enough because food was unaffordable
- Households with children that lacked enough food to eat in the past week
- Households with children that sometimes or often did not have enough food to eat prior to the pandemic
- Adults ages 18–24 who sometimes or often did not have enough food to eat in the past week
- Adults ages 18–24 who sometimes or often did not have enough food to eat prior to the pandemic
- All family economic well-being measures
- 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book
