On Saturday, September 20, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is terminating future data collection on food insecurity. The last Household Food Security in the United States Report will be released on October 22, reflecting data from 2024. The USDA’s decision to end food insecurity data collection will obscure policymakers’ and the public’s ability to evaluate the state of the nation’s households and the impact of public policy decisions. This annual report is critical to understanding overall food security in the United States as well as for key groups; determining whether policies and programs are advancing food security; and informing targeted interventions that support access to a healthy, nutritious diet. The reports have continued annually for three decades through both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Food insecurity is a known health risk for children and adults, starting prenatally. A robust body of evidence has demonstrated time and again the serious mental and physical harm that food insecurity causes across the lifespan, including poor health, exacerbations of chronic conditions, anxiety, depression, poor child growth, increased child hospitalizations, and more. In turn, treatment and management of these consequences lead to enormous and avoidable health care and educational costs incurred to society.
“The cancellation of these reports comes at a precarious time for families in this country,” says Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, Executive Director of Children’s HealthWatch. “Under the recently passed federal tax and spending bill, approximately 4 million people in a typical month will lose some or all of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, despite the fact that SNAP is an evidence-based nutrition program for reducing food insecurity. Without the annual food security reports, it will be much harder to track the impacts of the cuts and other program changes.”
Additional cuts to other safety net programs, such as Medicaid, will further strain families’ budgets and place them at risk of economic hardship, including food insecurity.
The prevalence of food insecurity is chronically high in the US: in 2023, 13.5% of households were food insecure. Policy choices make it so. But different choices can be made—and data like those from the USDA food security report help us determine the impact of those choices. During the COVID pandemic, significant investments in public supports held the national food insecurity prevalence flat, despite the rising tide of unemployment.
The Household Food Security Reports provide a nationally representative sample of the US population, with the broadest demographics and widest reach of any food insecurity survey in the US. Even if other organizations attempt to fill the data collection gap left by this termination, the scope and scale of this national dataset cannot be matched. This makes it difficult to identify trends, good or bad, that could shape future policy.
“As pediatricians, we rely on data to be effective, tracking vital signs and growth over time,” says Megan Sandel, Co-Lead Principal Investigator of Children’s HealthWatch. “This move to stop measuring food insecurity takes the pulse away from a problem we know is growing and threatening the health of our patients.”
We urge the USDA to prioritize the health of children and families by continuing to collect these crucial data. Children’s HealthWatch was founded to demonstrate the impact of policy change on the health and well-being of young children and their families. For 27 years, we have tracked food insecurity among these families around the nation, making plain the choices that advanced or harmed young children’s health and development. We stand firm in our determination to continue this legacy of shining light through robust, credible evidence, and holding leaders accountable for their decisions’ impact on our youngest children.