On September 30th, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) canceled the Household Food Security Report that had been in place for 30 years. The report monitors the number of families in the US struggling to afford food. The immediate effect of removing this report might seem insignificant to most Americans, but its true effects will stretch further for Americans with food insecurity. The removal of this report means disregarding over 18 million Americans and their families by limiting the data that helps people understand and advocate for them.
The report was originally created in the mid-90s in response to the increased spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The goal was to ensure that funds were properly distributed and programs were properly funded to help combat food insecurity. The data from the Household Food Insecurity Report largely influences the amount of funding and resources that go into programs such as SNAP. The removal of this report will be detrimental to these programs and the people who use them because it will make it extremely difficult for policymakers to provide a sufficient amount.
So why does this matter? In other words, why should you care?
Think of it as going skydiving: You’re about to jump out of a plane, but you have a hole in your parachute. The pilot keeps patches on board to make sure everyone can make it safely to the ground. She used to get a report before the flight to make sure there were enough patches on board. However, she no longer receives this report, and without it, she cannot be sure that she’ll have enough patches on board for everyone who needs one. Either way, you have to jump, regardless of the state of your parachute. If the pilot knows how many parachutes need to be patched, everyone can survive, but without the report, the survival of the passengers is at risk.
The pilot in this scenario represents the policymakers and advocates who work to provide assistance to families with food insecurity. Funding programs such as SNAP (the patches) allows policymakers to provide support. Currently, they use the Household Food Security report to identify the amount and severity of food insecurity (holes) and ensure that adequate support reaches the families in need. By discontinuing this report, policymakers are left without the information necessary to effectively meet the needs of these families. The result for many families will be a situation similar to the passengers on the plane, as they hope to get the support they need without the representation it takes to get it.
What effect does this have on the average American, though?
Well, programs like SNAP are funded with American tax dollars, and regardless of personal opinion on tax dollars going towards feeding other people, as of right now, it’s happening. An estimated 99.8 billion dollars was spent on SNAP in the 2024 fiscal year, all of which came from American tax dollars. So if the money is going to be spent here either way, shouldn’t it be used most effectively? The only way to ensure this money is being used effectively is to put in place the systems that inform people on how to use it.
