Ending hunger in the United States is a key part of Bread for the World’s mission – but how will we know when it has been fulfilled?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began to measure food security in 1996. Before that, anti-hunger advocates had only a rough proxy—data on poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau. In most years, hunger rates do track closely with poverty rates, but there are times when they do not.
Access to data on food security has been an improvement since it includes information at the household level about people’s access to food each month.
In 2022, USDA announced that it would begin to track nutrition security alongside food security. What is nutrition security, and how does it differ from food security?
Food security itself is a formal term for what most people might call having enough money for food or not going hungry. By definition, all members of a food secure household, at all times, have enough food for an active, healthy life. This is not just any food—it is nutritionally adequate food that is safe to eat and has been obtained in a socially acceptable way.
Nutrition security includes the elements of food security plus access to foods that prevent disease and, if needed, treat disease. Disease associated with poor dietary quality—including high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease—is the leading cause of premature death in the United States. Altogether, disease associated with poor diet consumes almost 20 percent of all healthcare spending.
The announcement that USDA is beginning to track nutrition security alongside food security has been welcomed by many healthcare professionals, especially those who treat the consequences of poor diets. Much of the damage to human health of a poor diet is caused by lack of access to foods that promote good health, often due to lack of resources. Diet-related diseases are more prevalent in low-income communities. There are fewer healthy food choices, and to stretch every food dollar as far as possible, families often resort to purchasing less healthy or unhealthy foods.
While USDA had previously paid some attention to nutrition security, the 2022 announcement signaled its intention to update the way it evaluates nutrition programs’ effectiveness.
The largest of these programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.
In July, Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the SNAP Nutrition Security Act of 2023, which calls for:
- Measuring and reporting annually on nutrition security and diet quality, as USDA currently does for food security.
- Adding reporting on food and nutrition security to annual state SNAP-Ed reports.
- Collecting and reporting every four years on national and state SNAP sales data. Data will be collected in the aggregate and the privacy of SNAP shoppers and retailers will be protected.
- Adding improving nutrition security and diet quality to Congress’s declaration of policy, or congressional rationale, for SNAP.
The bill is not universally popular among anti-hunger advocates. The main concern is that it could open the door to limiting the food choices of SNAP participants. SNAP, unlike other federal nutrition programs, does not prohibit the purchase of ultra-processed foods or foods with no nutritional value.
Some advocates, mindful of the need to protect the freedom of SNAP participants to make their own food purchase decisions just like everyone else, argue that tracking nutritional security could help make the case for restrictions. The bill does not contain proposed restrictions on purchases, nor does it state that restricting SNAP-approved foods is a goal. But uncertainty about policymakers’ intentions could be a valid concern.
Yet everyone, especially SNAP participants, could potentially benefit from insights into nutrition security. For example, the additional knowledge could help improve the U.S. food system. The information may not come as welcome news to everyone, but diet-related disease is a significant problem leading people to premature death, and information is needed to understand and solve it.
This article began by pointing out that the United States did not measure food security until 1996. Data on poverty was an imprecise proxy. There is no proxy at all for nutrition security, so collecting more information is an important step toward developing new strategies to protect our population’s health.
Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.
