One in Five Children in the US Face Food Insecurity

In the United States, nearly 14 million children—or approximately one in five—currently face food insecurity and hunger. This figure represents an improvement from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the number had climbed to nearly 18 million.

The issue of child hunger reflects a broader problem of food insecurity across all age groups in the country. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2022 report, Household Food Security in the USA, around 17 million households, or 12.8% of all households, experienced food insecurity in 2022. This marked a significant rise from 10.2% in 2021. Of these, 6.8 million households suffered from very low food security, a condition that worsened from 3.8% to 5.1% as a percentage of total households within the same period.

Although households with children represent only 39% of all U.S. households, and adults often shield children from hunger when possible, the statistics remain alarming. The number of households experiencing child food insecurity increased sharply from 2.3 million in 2021 to 3.3 million in 2022—a staggering 44% rise in just one year. Similarly, the number of households where children experienced high food insecurity, which includes skipping meals or going without food for an entire day, rose from 274,000 to 381,000 during the same period, a 40% increase.

In addition to children living in households, many homeless children and others outside traditional household settings face even higher rates of food insecurity.

Certain populations, such as African Americans and Latinos, experience disproportionately high levels of food insecurity compared to the national average. Moreover, expectations that hunger would decline after the pandemic have largely gone unmet. Some pandemic-era programs aimed at combating hunger were rolled back too quickly, exacerbating the problem in many regions.

The Food Research and Action Center recently issued a stark warning about the potential worsening of this crisis. As 12 U.S. states prepare to reduce their combined $1.4 billion spending on food and nutrition programs (such as EBT benefits), an estimated 10 million children could face increased food insecurity during the summer of 2025.

Efforts to address hunger must not only focus on immediate relief but also ensure long-term support to protect vulnerable populations from falling into deeper levels of deprivation.

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