A new report by the non-profit Hunger Free America shows the number of Alabamians, including children, living with daily hunger is growing. The study examined the rise in the number of State residents dealing with food insecurity between 2021 and 2023. The report broke down the numbers of families, senior citizens, and children going hungry in Alabama.
The Hunger Free American report “Hunger is a Political Choice” focused on how cuts in federal benefits had led to greater food insecurity. Here in Alabama, the study states the number of people facing daily hunger between 2021 and 2023 grew over 44%, going from over 300,000 two years ago to nearly a half million in 2023. Hunger Free America says close to 200,000 children were living with food insecurity in 2022. Over 100,000 seniors don't have enough to eat every day in Alabama. Overall, twelve percent of the State’s population goes hungry regularly.
The report stated…
● The number of Americans who didn’t have enough to eat over two one-week periods increased by 40.8 percent between September/October 2021 and
September/October 2023, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey. Hunger Free America attributes that surge to the
expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credits and universal school meals, coupled with the impact of inflation.
Other findings of the study:
● Nationally, 11.9% of Americans were found to live in food insecure households over an entire year between 2020 and 2022. According to USDA data, the states
with the highest rates of food insecure individuals from 2020-2022 were Texas (19.0%), Arkansas (16.3%), Louisiana (16.1%), Mississippi (15.4%), Oklahoma
(15.3%), and South Carolina (15.3%).
● 15.8% of children in the U.S. lived in food insecure households in the 2020-2022 time period. The states with the highest rates of food insecure children were
Delaware (21.4%), Nebraska (21.0%), Texas (20.7%), Georgia (20.0%), Kentucky (19.7%), and Louisiana (19.7%).
● Nationally, 9.1% of employed adults in the U.S. lived in food insecure households during the three-year time period. The states with the highest rates of food
insecurity among employed adults were Arkansas (13.7%), Texas (13.4%), Louisiana (12.5%), South Carolina (12.5%), and Oklahoma (12.4%).
● In the U.S., 7.6% of older Americans, defined as people 60 years and older, lived in food insecure households. Louisiana had the highest rate of food insecurity among older Americans at 13.9%, followed by Mississippi (12.7%), District of Columbia (12.6%), West Virginia (11.0%), and Oklahoma (10.4%).
● Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas were consistently on the lists of the top ten states with the highest rates of food insecurity for individuals overall, children, employed adults, and older Americans.
● The states with the lowest rates of food insecurity were New Hampshire (6.1%), Minnesota (7.3%), Vermont (7.7%), Colorado (8.4%), and North Dakota (8.6%).
