By SDCN Editor
More than 3.6 million California residents didn’t have enough to eat over two one-week periods in August/September of 2024, 54% more than in August/September of 2021, according to an annual Hunger Atlas Report by the nonprofit group Hunger Free America, based on an analysis of federal data.
Hunger Free America attributes this surge in hunger to the expiration of several federal programs, including the expanded Child Tax Credit, increased SNAP (formerly called food stamps) allotments, and universal school meals, coupled with the impact of inflation.
According to the USDA food insecurity data—a different way of measuring food hardship analyzed by Hunger Free America—4,769,661 California residents (12.4%) were found to live in food-insecure households between 2021 and 2023. This includes 16.7% of children in the state (1,417,137), 9.8% of employed adults (1,810,506), and 8.4% of older California residents (706,389).
This year, in addition to their annual hunger survey, Hunger Free America conducted a nationwide poll of low-income American households with children to assess the impacts of the USDA’s new Summer EBT program. Summer EBT (also known as SUN Bucks) is a new grocery benefit launched in the summer of 2024 in 37 states and Washington, D.C. The new benefit is that California allows families with eligible school-aged children in states that opt into the program to receive $120 per child for groceries over the summer. Thirteen states opted out of participating in the program in its inaugural year, 2024.
The findings of the Summer EBT survey showed that 75% of respondents who received the benefits said the benefits helped them buy more fruits and vegetables and/or shop more frequently at farmers’ markets. About 73% of respondents who did not receive Summer EBT benefits said the extra benefits would have helped their family to afford enough food and/or healthy food.
“How can anyone seriously think the economy is healthy when so Americans – spread out among suburban, rural, and urban communities in red and blue states alike — have a tough time affording something as basic as food?” said Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg. “As we say every year when we release this annual report, allowing mass food hardship in a nation with vast food and monetary resources is a political choice. While we are greatly heartened that the new Summer EBT program helped children over a few months, several states opted not to participate.”
Berg says their reports demonstrate that the economy and social safety net are failing fundamentally. He added that leaders must fight to protect key food, housing, and health care safety net programs, as well as vocally push to restore the expanded CTC (which previously halved U.S. child poverty)
“They must also embrace far broader programmatic and systemic reforms that are aspirational and opportunity-boosting.”
Other findings from the Hunger Atlas report:
About 16.8% of children in the U.S. lived in food-insecure households in the 2021-2023 time period. The states with the highest rates of food-insecure children were Texas (23.8%), Oklahoma (23.2%), Nebraska (22.6%), Georgia (22.4%), and California (22.4%).
Nationally, 10.2% of employed adults in the U.S. lived in food-insecure households during the three years. The states with the highest rates of food insecurity among employed adults were California (15.3%), Texas (15.3%), Louisiana (14.2%), Oklahoma (14.1%), and Nebraska (13.0%).
In the U.S., 8.4% of older Americans, defined as people 60 years and older, lived in food-insecure households. Louisiana had the highest rate of food insecurity among older Americans at 13.0%, followed by Mississippi (12.5%), California (12.2%), Texas (11.9%), and DC (11.3%).
The report includes detailed public policy recommendations at the federal level, state, and city levels, including reauthorizing the Child Tax Credit and expanding the EITC for low-income working people, ensuring that the Farm Bill strengthens – and doesn’t cut – SNAP and other food assistance programs, ensuring full funding for WIC, processing all SNAP applications within the required 30 days, and increasing school breakfast participation by ensuring all schools provide in-classroom breakfasts to all first period classes.
