In the wake of steep cuts to federal anti-hunger programs and rising food insecurity, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Saturday that it is terminating all future Household Food Security Reports, which provide critical data on food security in the U.S.
Food insecurity has been rising significantly in recent years—from 10.2% of American households (13.5 million households) in 2021 to 13.5% (18 million households) in 2023.
According to the most recent report, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2023, including 13.8 million children.
The decision to terminate the annual government hunger report follows federal funding cuts and freezes this spring that dramatically reduced the amount of food provided to food banks and schools.
And this summer, Congress passed legislation that includes massive cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. CNN reports that about 2.4 million Americans, including families with children, are expected to lose their food stamp benefits as a result, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The USDA said in a statement that the annual reports are “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” and “do nothing more than fear monger.”
Experts questioned these claims, noting that both Republican and Democratic administrations have produced the annual reports for the past three decades.
The USDA survey results are far from redundant—they have become the official data source relied on by decision makers, Barbara Laraia, professor and chair of the University of California at Berkeley’s Food Nutrition and Population Health Program, told The Washington Post. The data “has helped us measure how the federal food programs are working,” she said.
In its 2024 report, the USDA wrote, “Annual monitoring of food security contributes to the effective operation of Federal food and nutrition assistance programs, as well as private food assistance programs and other government initiatives aimed at reducing food insecurity.”
Anti-hunger advocates also contested the claim that the survey is costly, telling Politico that the hunger-related questions are included in yearly census data collection. USDA said its reports are based on data collected in an annual survey as a supplement to the nationally representative Current Population Survey conducted each year by the Census Bureau.
USDA said it will release one last report in October that will provide food security data for 2024.
“By cancelling the survey, USDA is sending a signal that tracking and battling hunger is no longer a priority,” Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger, said in a statement. “It is further troubling that the decision comes amid predictions that hunger may increase in the coming months and years,” he said.
“Hunger will not disappear simply because it is no longer tracked.”