An increasing share of American adults are going hungry
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More Americans are going hungry, per new data from Morning Consult.
The big picture: It's a shocking data point for the wealthiest country in the world, and comes at a time when the stock market is hitting record highs and President Trump just signed a bill slashing food benefits.
- The rise is like a slow-moving train wreck, says John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult. "There's such a disconnect now between record highs on Wall Street and elevated levels of food insecurity."
Zoom in: The share of adults who tell Morning Consult in monthly surveys that they sometimes or often don't have enough to eat — or are food insecure — has been creeping up over the past several years.
- In May, 15.6% of adults were food insecure, almost double the rate in 2021. At that time Congress had beefed up SNAP benefits and expanded the Child Tax Credit driving down poverty rates, and giving people more money for food.
Zoom out: The rate appears higher than pre-pandemic levels.
- Morning Consult's data only goes back to 2021. However, federal data that measures food insecurity, and roughly lines up with Morning Consult's findings, shows the numbers were already above pro-COVID levels back in 2023.
Demand for food is up 120% from three years ago at the Philadelphia-area food bank network where George Matysik is executive director.
- As soon as the government support pulled back in 2022, "we started to see the numbers go up," says Matysik, who is with the Share Food Program, which serves hundreds of thousands of people.
- Demand just continued to rise from there, along with grocery prices.
Between the lines: Congress just passed a huge cut to food benefits, or SNAP, that is likely to make the situation far worse, says Matycik.
- The "big, beautiful bill" pushes states to provide more funding for SNAP, and tightens work requirements for benefits.
- Before, adults over age 54 weren't required to work; now the age limit is 64. And fewer parents are exempted from working, as well.
- It's expected that millions will lose benefits, and more would receive less.
- People will have less money for food, further driving folks to food banks, which had already been dealing with different spending cuts from the White House.
Reality check: Some of the cuts to SNAP, involving state funding, don't take effect until 2028 — raising the possibility that they might not happen.
- The data also looks a bit volatile, bouncing around quite a bit — it spiked at the end of 2024, and it's not clear why.
- It is likely a reflection of how precarious it is to make ends meet for folks at the lower end of the wage scale — some are in hourly jobs with fluctuating schedules, which can be rough on one's personal finances.
The other side: The White House and congressional Republicans argue that cuts to these benefits are a way to push more people into the labor market and reduce dependence on government assistance, as well as an effort to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.
The bottom line: Americans are increasingly struggling to afford food, and the situation is expected to worsen in the coming years.
