A Federal Reserve Bank survey finds food insecurity still rising since the Biden administration

The share of Americans struggling with food insecurity has increased, deepening a trend that began under the Biden administration, a survey shows.

A recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the share of U.S. households with limited or uncertain access to adequate nourishment more than doubled from 4% in June 2020 to 10% this year.

The bank highlighted "meaningful increases" from October 2025 to February 2026 among non-White, low-income and child-rearing households that skipped meals, dipped into savings or sought public assistance.

The survey offers a first snapshot of the issue under the second Trump administration, which terminated the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual household food security survey last year. It builds on USDA data confirming steady increases from 2021 to 2024, especially after COVID-19 emergency food subsidies ended in 2023.

"Over this same period, food prices have been steadily increasing," said Joshua Berning, a Colorado State University food economist. "And tariffs have exacerbated rising food prices."

Grocery costs have risen 25.2% since February 2020, when pandemic restrictions began disrupting the global food supply, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show.

Mr. Berning cited multiple drivers: the war in Ukraine and the conflict with Iran, Trump administration cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and rising labor, energy and production costs.

The USDA's most recent survey found that 47.9 million people — in roughly 13.7% of all U.S. households — lived in food-insecure households in 2024. That was the highest figure since 2014.

Several social service agencies said the number has likely kept climbing as President Trump cuts the federal workforce and safety net, while donations drop and rising food prices drive up demand.

"We had a family living in a $1 million home come in for food assistance because of the government shutdown," said Elizabeth Ford, founder of the food pantry BetterALife in Northern Virginia. "Jobs around the government sector are less and less available."

Ms. Ford said visits to her two food pantries in Loudoun and Fairfax counties have tripled since January. Meanwhile, the cost of a bagged school lunch rose from $4 in 2021 to $7 this year, pushing her nonprofit's monthly food costs to $6,000.

Feeding America, a national network of food banks, estimated that roughly 50 million Americans turned to the charitable food system in 2023, up from 46.5 million in 2014.

Elisabeth Hill Jordan, founder of Dallas homeless nonprofit Human Impact, said her visits to pantries to obtain food doubled after the Trump administration froze SNAP benefits in November.

"A woman named Teresa, who was recently in a shelter and is now unsheltered, told me her food stamps were cut significantly after she lost her housing," Ms. Jordan said. "She is an example of what we are hearing more and more."

The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Trump administration has cited fraud and waste to justify SNAP restrictions, freezing benefits multiple times since late last year while pushing states to ban junk food purchases and verify recipients' work status. SNAP spent $101.7 billion in fiscal year 2025, about 1.4% of all federal spending.

Conservatives note that annual inflation has fallen from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.8% in April, despite the reported increases in food insecurity.

"The Trump administration's goal of addressing waste, fraud and abuse is absolutely necessary with nearly $40 trillion of national debt," said Jonathan Williams, chief economist for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of conservative state lawmakers. "There are still ample amounts of local, state and federal food assistance programs for people in genuine need."

Allen Mendenhall, an economist at The Heritage Foundation, blamed "the decline of the nuclear family and a welfare system that fosters long-term dependency" for perpetuating food insecurity.

"When people see statistics about hunger, the immediate reaction is often to call for more government assistance," he said. "But this intervention will worsen dependency while failing to address deeper structural issues."

Grassroots complaints

Multiple charities have reported growing strains on food distribution, bolstering the New York Fed's findings.

The Atlanta Community Food Bank served an average of 255,000 people monthly from January through April this year — up from 110,000 in 2017 and a pandemic-era high of 170,000 monthly from May to November 2020. Some 27% of clients seen over the past three months were first-time recipients.

"As summer approaches, the hunger crisis deepens further," said Kyle Waide, chief executive of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. "When the school year ends, tens of thousands of Georgia children lose access to the free and reduced-price meals they depend on five days a week."

Communities In Schools, which supports disadvantaged students at more than 3,500 campuses, launched a $250,000 emergency grant program for families affected by the lengthy federal government shutdown in the fall.

"We have seen an uptick in the number of students whose families rely on food assistance, and we know that with school on recess for the summer, hunger increases for many families," said spokesperson Rasheda Williams.

Swipe Out Hunger, a California nonprofit fighting campus food insecurity, estimated in a 2025 survey of 299 college pantries that roughly 40% of college students struggled to secure adequate food. The cost of serving a low-income student rose from $1.95 in the 2023-2024 school year to $2.25 in 2024-2025.

"Much of this is a direct result of actions from the Trump administration," said spokesperson Sadof Alexander. "Delays and cuts to SNAP, economic policies that increase the cost of basic necessities, and divestment from higher education programs have worsened food insecurity on campuses."

Michael Austin, a former economic adviser to two Republican Kansas governors, countered that "reduced food variety" does not mean people are starving.

"The larger lesson is that pandemic aid temporarily masked the inflationary pressure building underneath family budgets," said Mr. Austin, an economist with the National Center for Public Policy Research's Project 21. "Once emergency subsidies ended, families were still facing higher grocery, housing, energy and debt costs."

Seeking solutions

Several charities have called on the Trump administration to increase government benefits, bucking economists who support reshaping the social safety net from a lifetime entitlement to a short-term benefit based on genuine need.

"The durable fix is bringing food and energy prices down and getting people into better-paying work," said Siri Terjesen, a Florida Atlantic University economist who sits on the board of a homeless nonprofit in Boca Raton. "Assistance can bridge a hard stretch, but it can't substitute for an economy where a family's income actually covers the basics."

Regina Harmon, CEO of Food Recovery Network, said surging demand has created a waitlist for her produce program serving low-income families in public grade schools. She called for minimum-wage increases to help struggling households afford food.

"The reality is that, regardless of current or past administrations, everyone living in the U.S. was born into a system that has perpetuated hunger over multiple administrations," Ms. Harmon said. "It is an inherited issue that we have allowed to persist."

Others noted that low-income households are finding new ways to stretch budgets as prices rise and benefits shrink.

Jessica Rice of Budget Bytes said many families shifted to cheaper proteins after beef prices climbed 15% to 20% because of droughts reducing the national cattle herd to historic lows.

"I've never seen the canned foods aisle so crowded," said Ms. Rice, whose website promotes budget-friendly recipes. "Fewer people have ground beef in their shopping carts, and more people are reaching for value packs of chicken as well as dried beans and grains."

Whitney Stidom, vice president of consumer enablement at eHealth, an online health insurance marketplace, noted that seniors with chronic conditions such as diabetes can save money by applying for grocery benefits through Medicare plans.

"The challenge is that many eligible beneficiaries simply don't realize these plans exist or that they may be able to enroll outside the traditional Medicare enrollment season,"  Ms. Stidom said.