MAZON Responds to New USDA Data, Urges Policymakers to ‘Reverse the Course of Hunger’
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report on “Household Food Security in the United States in 2023.” MAZON responded to USDA’s report, which reveals that 13.5 percent of American households — 47.4 million people — faced food insecurity at some time during the last year. Not only is this a stunning increase from the already egregious 12.8 percent food insecurity rate in 2022, but it reflects a grim trend as the percentage of food insecure Americans continues to rise year after year. The report also illustrates a substantial increase in hunger following the federal government’s decision to allow pandemic-era protections and benefit boosts to expire.
“It is absolutely disgraceful that 47.4 million Americans are facing hunger,” said Abby J. Leibman, MAZON’s President & CEO. “What’s more shameful is the glaring disparity among certain populations that face higher rates of food insecurity than the national average — households headed by a single mother (34.7%), Black families (23.3%), and Hispanic families (21.9%) — not to mention the lack of specific data for frequently overlooked groups like Indigenous communities and the people of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.”
“Today’s report acutely spotlights a troubling trend of deepening food insecurity in this country. We’re going in the wrong direction. We have dramatic and recent evidence that safety net programs like SNAP, WIC, and the Child Tax Credit are critical and effective tools to fight hunger and poverty. During the height of the pandemic, our policymakers saved lives and livelihoods by expanding access to these programs, reducing child hunger in America by 50 percent. It was senseless, cruel, and counter-productive to allow the additional benefits to expire last year. The skyrocketing food insecurity figures we’re seeing now are the direct and logical result of that policy decision, and we will not allow lawmakers to avoid accountability for allowing tens of millions to go hungry.”
“This report also comes as our political leaders are offering competing Farm Bill proposals to address poverty and hunger in America. Do we continue to stigmatize the hungry, force onerous restrictions upon them, and make them jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to get help from their government? Or, do we support and protect them from the pain and indignity of hunger? Now more than ever, we call on our leaders at all levels of government to protect and strengthen our country’s safety net and reverse the course of hunger in this country.”