Food insecurity rose sharply in 2022, new report from USDA shows

Millions more U.S. households had difficulty securing enough food in 2022 compared to 2021, including 1 million more households with kids, a bleak report from USDA showed.

Millions more U.S. households had difficulty securing enough food last year compared to 2021, including 1 million more households with children, a bleak report from the U.S. Agriculture Department showed Wednesday.

The increase interrupted a yearslong trend of declining hunger in the U.S. Previous reports from food banks and the U.S. Census Bureau have indicated that hunger is increasing as low-income people struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and from the end of expanded food assistance.

“The report is a stark reminder of the consequences of shrinking our proven safety net,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement, calling the data "unacceptable."

The report, which did not provide an explanation for the rise, found that 12.8% of households — equivalent to 17 million households — struggled to get enough food last year, up from 10.2%, or 13.5 million households, in 2021.

Nearly 7 million households faced very low food security, meaning residents’ normal eating patterns were disrupted or food intake dropped because of limited resources, the Agriculture Department said.