More than 34 million people in the United States were living in food insecure households in 2021, a decline from 38 million in 2020. The combination of the expanded child tax credit, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and private donations all contributed to reducing food insecurity during the pandemic. Still there is much more work to be done, with food costs spiking 11.4%, the largest annual increase since 1979, inflation factors could easily cause food insecurity to grow.
In non-pandemic times, households with children were nearly 1.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity than households without children. 13.6% of households with children experienced food insecurity last year. More than 5 million children lived in these homes.
Then came the coronavirus. An analysis by the Brookings institution conducted earlier this summer found that in late June, 27.5% of households with children were food insecure — meaning some 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity. A separate analysis by researchers at Northwestern found insecurity has more than tripled among households with children to 29.5%.