Charities, advocacy groups and health experts have criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for axing its annual report on food insecurity across the nation.
On September 20, USDA announced it would end its Household Food Security Reports—a yearly publication that tracks hunger levels across the U.S. The department said in a statement that the annual reports are “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” and “do nothing more than fear monger.”
Newsweek has contacted USDA for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
Why It Matters
USDA classifies food insecurity as when, at certain times, households are “uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”
The cancellation comes after President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress passed the sweeping domestic agenda package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), earlier this year that is set to bring cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low- and no-income Americans buy groceries.
SNAP changes, which include expansion of work requirements and time limits, could result in the loss of benefits for 2.4 million people, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
What To Know
In its statement, USDA said the study, which was first created by Bill Clinton’s administration in the mid-1990s, has “failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder. Trends in the prevalence of food insecurity have remained virtually unchanged, regardless of an over 87 percent increase in SNAP spending between 2019-2023.”
The reports do not include policy recommendations or attribute trends in data to recent policy changes.
Food insecurity has been rising significantly in recent years—from 10.2 percent of American households (13.5 million households) in 2021 to 13.5 percent (18 million households) in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. According to the most recent report, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2023, including 13.8 million children.
USDA said it will “continue to prioritize statutory requirements and where necessary, use the bevy of more timely and accurate data sets available to it.”
Poverty and hunger charities and experts have heavily criticized the decision, saying it comes at a time when food insecurity is rising and set to increase under the OBBBA changes.
Anne Filipic, chief executive officer for hunger relief group Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign, told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “We should all be deeply concerned about the Trump administration’s move to eliminate the USDA’s annual hunger report. This data has been used for three decades to show trends in food insecurity across our nation, and in-turn illuminate how policy decisions impact how children and families across America experience hunger.”
Filipic said it is “no coincidence that this comes on the heels of the most extreme cuts that have ever been made to SNAP” which “will cause a spike in hunger in coming years that the administration doesn’t want us to see.”
The framing of the reports as being “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” has also been criticized.
“Food insecurity data is critical in understanding how well, or poorly, we are doing to ensure every American has access to the healthy, nutritious food needed,” Stephanie Hodges, public health dietitian at The Nourished Principles, a health and nutrition consulting business, told Newsweek.
She added that the elimination of data collection efforts “does not mean food insecurity” will go away, “it means that the administration is burying their head in the sand in regard to a problem that they helped create with policy actions like the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ which significantly changed SNAP eligibility and benefits.”
What People Are Saying
Anne Filipic from Share Our Strength said, “With the rising cost of food continuing to be a huge stressor on millions of American families, the focus should be on smart policy to eliminate hunger, not on eliminating evidence of hunger.”
Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger, said in a statement: “By canceling the survey, USDA is sending a signal that tracking and battling hunger is no longer a priority. With continuing worries about food inflation, as well as significant cuts to America’s largest food assistance program—SNAP—this move is a blow to policymakers and advocates who rely on the data to improve the lives of our food insecure neighbors.”
The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, said: “The cancellation of the food security report is the latest attempt from the Trump administration to interfere with the collection and reporting of federal statistics. Without consistent, accurate food security data from the Census Bureau, policymakers, researchers, and USDA staff alike will have a harder time measuring changes in household well-being as the largest SNAP cuts in history reduce food access for millions of people.
“Congress should demand the USDA answer for this sudden change of course and propose legislation requiring the USDA to continue this essential work.”
What Happens Next