Free Interactive Report
Hunger and Malnutrition in the US
UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, Zero Hunger, aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Addressing food insecurity, undernourishment, and malnutrition will require addressing food waste, food deserts, and improving access to support systems like food stamps (SNAP), food banks and pantries, and school lunch programs. It also means ensuring our food production systems and agricultural practices are more productive, environmentally sustainable, and are resistant to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.
The US has both a production and consumption problem when it comes to food. With over 35 million people facing food insecurity in the US, an estimated 35% of all food in the US goes unsold or uneaten each year – totaling over $400 billion.
Hunger in the US can be linked with a range of other issues, including poverty. Poverty is a leading cause of food insecurity, and disruptions in employment or a month of unexpected costs can push many families to decide between buying food or paying a bill. Our Interactive Report on Poverty in the US shows some key indicators as well as the organizations working to eradicate poverty.
Use the tool below to view hunger-related indicators nationally or by state, as well as an overview of the more than 25,200 nonprofit organizations that work on addressing related issues in the US. You can also discover 143 products and services in our Tech for Good Directory addressing malnutrition, food waste, food banks and other key areas of hunger.
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Notes:
* These are food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, and related organizations. The number is larger than the dataset in the Nonprofit Social Funding section of this report as not all these nonprofits filed digitally with the IRS.
Interactive charts sources:
- Food Insecurity: Household Food Security in the United States in 2019, ERR-275, US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- Children Food Insecurity: The Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center 2019
- SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: US Census Bureau data, 2020
- Food Pantries, Food Banks and Similar Programs: GC Insights Analysis of IRS returns and FoodPantries.org
- Nonprofit-related data: GC Insights analysis of over 600,000 forms 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service -IRS 2018-2020
Other Sources:
- Feeding America – Hunger in America
- SDG Tracker – Zero Hunger
- The Global Goals – #2 Zero Hunger
- USDA – Food Security in the US
- USDA – Food Deserts
- Iowa Food Bank – Impacts of Hunger on the Economy
- AAMC – 54 million people in America face food insecurity during the pandemic.
- WHO – Malnutrition
- Our World in Data – Micronutrient Deficiency
- Our World in Data – Obesity
- Our World in Data – Hunger and Undernourishment
- FAO – Indicator 2.1.1 - Prevalence of undernourishment