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Food insecurity across the country increased slightly in 2024, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The latest Household Food Security report shows that 13.7% of U.S. households struggled to get enough food, which is a small uptick from the 13.5% reported in 2023. Texas and Oklahoma are among the states with the highest food insecurity rates, and Minnesota and Iowa have some of the lowest, according to the survey.
Crystal FitzSimons is the president of the national anti-hunger advocacy group the Food Research and Action Center. She said while the food insecurity rate is similar to previous years, one in seven households is still too high.
"And there have been plenty of times during the last few decades when this report was put out, when the number of people living in food insecure households were significantly lower," FitzSimons said.
The report published last month is expected to be the last. In September, the USDA announced it is canceling the annual survey, calling it "redundant, costly, and politicized" in a news release.
But people working to address hunger say the data is important to help inform advocacy and policy decisions.
Nila Pradhananga, an Oklahoma State University professor and nutrition extension specialist said the report is the gold standard for hunger data.
"I don't really see any other (report) that would be comparable to this that gives us a national reference," Pradhananga said.
She said she uses the report to compare food insecurity rates with other measures such as poverty rates, unemployment rates or inflation.
"I'm very interested in looking at how households with children versus households without children are affected with the food insecurity rates," Pradhananga said. "Adults, and how they might have been different with adults with chronic diseases, for instance… So I think it's a very vital measure of the national economic well-being as a whole."
The Food Research and Action Center is advocating for the USDA to continue releasing the data and is working with Congressional members to introduce a bill that would require the report to be issued, FitzSimons said.
"Without this report, it is very hard to understand what is going on as far as access to healthy and nutritious diets and the impact of the policy decisions that they're making in Washington, D.C., or within states," FitzSimons said.
What else is in the report?
Food insecurity in rural areas was similar to that of more urban areas in 2024, but it varied by region and demographics. The Northeast part of the country had the lowest rate while the South had the highest.
While child food insecurity rates are similar to past years, they have slightly gone up. Children in about 9% of households were food insecure at times in 2024.
Nearly a quarter of Black households and about 20% of Hispanic households struggled to get enough food, according to the report. That's compared to about 10% of white households. The rate for women living alone was 1.5% higher than their male counterparts.
Many factors impact people's level of food security, Pradhananga said, like the economy and food accessibility, especially in Oklahoma.
"A lot of the time people might not have a supermarket that's closer to them, or it would be 15 or 20 miles away from their house," Pradhananga said. "And that's a big constraint on what and where people eat."
FitzSimons said states with an increased rate should make sure people who need nutrition programs – like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or school meal programs – can access them.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
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