Broken Healthcare is the Biggest Cause of Hunger in the US

In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, 1 in 8 people are food insecure due largely to rising healthcare costs.

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The US Department of Agriculture keeps rigorous data on the American peoples’ food security (or lack thereof), and their most recent report should concern everyone. They found that 10.5% of US households experienced food insecurity in 2020, meaning that roughly 13.8 million households had disruptions of access to proper nutrition. Of this group, 6.6% of households experienced low food security, which the USDA defines as having “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet.” The remaining 3.9% of households experienced very low food security. This is when a household has “multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”

This translates to:

• People living in food-insecure households: 38.3 million people.
• Households with very low food security: 9.4 million.
• Children experiencing food insecurity: 6.1 million.