To be sure, the phenomenon of food insecurity in the United States is not equivalent to the severe malnutrition observed in some developing countries. Nonetheless, it has far-reaching impacts on the health and well-being of an unacceptably large number of Americans adults and children. The common-sense notion that lack of access to food is harmful has been established by rigorous research. Children living in food-insecure households tend to have a lower health-related quality of life (Casey et al. 2005), higher rates of asthma (Mangini et al. 2015), less-nutritious diets (Fram et al. 2015), and behavioral problems that affect school performance (Whitaker, Phillips, and Orzol 2006).

Definitions

Food insecurity: Food-insecure households had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. In 2014, 14.0 percent of households were food insecure. Very low food security: In addition to having the characteristics of food security, households that have very low food security also report that, at times during the year, the food intake of household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money and other resources for food. The surgeon general has set a goal to eliminate very low food security among children by 2020 (HealhtyPeople.gov 2016). In 2014, 5.6 percent of households experienced very low food security.

Food insecurity is measured using the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA 2015) 18-question U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module, implemented annually in the December Supplement (CPS-FSS) to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). This survey tool asks a series of questions about households’ resources available for food and whether adults or children in the household adjusted their food intake—cutting meal size, skipping meals, or going for a day without food—because of lack of money for food. A household is considered to be “food insecure” if, due to a lack of resources, it had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all of its members. The more-severe categorization of “very low food security” status describes those food-insecure households in which members’ food intake was reduced and their normal eating patterns disrupted at some point during the year because of a lack of resources for food. Food insecurity and very low food security are measured at the household level, though questions about adults and children are asked separately. In other words, a child may live in a food-insecure household, but be buffered from the direct effects of food insecurity by the adults in the household. The food insecurity measures are collected annually in December as a supplement to the U.S.Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS); the results are the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) data files.

Note that food insecurity is distinct from poverty. While the poverty rate measures the share of families with annual gross income below a particular threshold, the food insecurity rate reflects the resources available to purchase food. In thirty states and the District of Columbia the rate of food insecurity is higher than the rate of poverty. While the rate of food insecurity declines as household income increases, its reach extends farther up the income distribution than many would guess: two-thirds of food-insecure households have annual incomes above the federal poverty level (FPL). And because many households may be food secure one year but not the next, an even larger share of households has had some experience with food insecurity than any single-year snapshot suggests.

There is an important role for the safety net in insuring households against food insecurity. The largest of the federal nutrition assistance programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly called the Food Stamp Program), is highly effective, lifting millions of people out of poverty and increasing the resources they have available to purchase food.

In addition, because it is designed to expand and contract according to need, SNAP serves as an important macroeconomic stabilizer. Furthermore, several studies have found that SNAP reduces the likelihood that a household will experience food insecurity or very low food security (Ratcliffe, McKernan, and Zhang 2011; Schmidt, Shore-Sheppard, and Watson 2012; Shaefer and Gutierrez 2013). Moreover, evidence from safety net expansions—such as the temporary benefit increase under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and a pilot program that provided additional benefits to families of children during the summer months when school meals were not available—shows reductions in rates of food insecurity and very low food security. Recent studies have shown that SNAP improves health outcomes and households’ financial well-being, and even improves the later-life outcomes of individuals who had access to the program as children.

A guiding principle of The Hamilton Project is that long-term prosperity is best achieved by fostering economic growth and broad participation in that growth. This necessitates increasing economic security—which in turn can increase economic growth by enabling people to invest in their education or that of their children, and by helping families get back on their feet quickly after unexpected shocks. In this spirit, The Hamilton Project offers the following 12 facts on food insecurity, SNAP, and other nutrition support programs.