USDA: More Americans faced food insecurity in 2023

Hunger reached its highest point in the United States in nearly a decade last year, with 18 million households, or 13.5%, struggling at some point to secure enough food, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released on Wednesday said (Source: “Hunger in US continued multi-year rise in 2023, government report says,” Reuters, Sept. 4).

Hunger has been on the rise in the country since 2021, after years of decline, according to the new USDA report. U.S. Census Bureau data last year showed a rise in food insecurity after the end of programs that expanded food aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report did not provide an explanation for the increase.

Anti-hunger group Feeding America found in May that hungry people in the United States were facing a $33.1 billion shortfall in money to meet their food needs, in part due to higher food prices.