What food-insecure households experience

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 13.8 million U.S. households met the definition of low or very low food security in 2020, meaning that they had trouble providing enough food for all of their members at some time during the year. This federal government survey data shows that many of those households worried about running out of food and affording a healthy diet.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, using data from the December 2020 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. The 2020 food security survey included 34,330 households that comprise a representative sample of the U.S. civilian population of about 130 million households.
Chart: Table originally created by The Conversation, CC BY-ND; recreated by GOVERNING Source: USDA