Hunger in America is on the rise — and the federal government released the evidence as quietly as possible. Late on December 30, while much of the country was focused on the holidays, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its latest report on household food security.
The findings are stark:
- 13.7% of households (approximately 18.3 million) experienced food insecurity at some point in 2024.
- 5.4% of households were classified as having “very low” food security, indicating reduced food intake and disrupted eating due to lack of resources.
- Approximately 59% of food insecure households relied on one or more major federal nutrition assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and National School Lunch Program.
- New York State’s rate of food insecurity exceeds the national average.
Between 2022 and 2024, 14% of households in New York State were food insecure compared with 10.3% from 2019–2021 — a 36% increase.
Beyond the numbers, there’s another point: nobody was supposed to notice them. It’s a time-honored tradition to dump bad news when no one is looking. Got something you want to bury? Put it in a press release at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday. The December 30 release follows this playbook.
It gets worse; this is the last report of its kind for the foreseeable future. In September 2025, the USDA announced the termination of future Household Food Security Reports. Their explanation: “These redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.”
In fact, this survey has been the gold standard for measuring food insecurity for nearly 30 years. It provides rigorous and consistent measures that track trends over time, assess how programs are performing, and identify the highest risk groups so interventions and resources can be effectively targeted. The consequences extend beyond hunger. Food insecurity is linked to health and chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, increased risk of birth defects, cognitive impairments, and mental illness. Related health care expenditures are estimated to exceed $50 billion annually.
This change means that it is once again up to states to pick up the pieces. One option is for states to add a brief food security module each year when they conduct the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). BRFSS completes more than 400,000 interviews in the U.S. each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world. Its massive sample size allows for state- and county-specific estimates. Surveys are administered by states under the umbrella of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and there is no indication that will change. Adding a handful of questions to a survey that already exists is an easy lift with virtually no added costs. There is legislation pending in New York State that would just do that, and this solution is easily replicable by other states.
The massive cuts to SNAP enacted by Congress will most certainly increase hunger in the coming years. Ending data collection will hide information about how many people and families are struggling to put food on the table. It’s part of a disturbing trend of disappearing data. Without reliable data, we can’t track trends and make smart decisions about where to invest public dollars. More New Yorkers will be struggling, and we will be in the dark.
By David Sandman, President and CEO, New York Health Foundation
Published on Medium on January 9, 2026
