USDA Ends 30-Year Hunger Report as 13.5% of Americans Face Food Insecurity

How do we solve hunger if nobody counts the hungry? That question looms as the U.S. Department of Agriculture prepares to release its final Household Food Security Report later in 2025 before ending the three-decade measurement program.

Numbers on a Plate: What's Vanishing in October

Since the mid-1990s, the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) has published annual reports measuring American food access through data collected by the Census Bureau. The Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement uses 18 standardized questions to determine whether households can consistently afford and access adequate nutrition.

The USDA announced on September 20, 2025, that it would terminate future reports, describing them as "redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous." The department claimed the reports "failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder" despite an "87% increase in SNAP spending between 2019-2023."

Food Insecurity: The Story Behind the Numbers

The 2023 report revealed concerning trends: 13.5% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity during the year, up from 12.8% in 2022. This translates to approximately 47.4 million Americans living in households with uncertain or limited access to adequate food. Among these households, 7.2 million children experienced food insecurity along with adults.

Food security researchers distinguish between different levels of food insecurity. The most severe category, "very low food security," affected 5.1% of households in 2023—a statistic that indicates reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns due to limited resources.

Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research and Action Center, told NPR that without the annual report, advocates and policymakers "won't have a clear lens on the scale of hunger in America, and how to prevent it."

SNAP Changes: New Requirements on the Menu

The decision to end the report comes after major changes to food assistance programs through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of July 2025. The law expanded work requirements for SNAP recipients and introduced other modifications to the program:

• The age range for work requirements expanded to include adults up to age 64 who are able-bodied and without dependents
• Parents whose youngest child is 14 or older must now meet work requirements
• Certain exemptions for veterans, former foster youth, and people experiencing homelessness have been removed or narrowed
• States face new cost-sharing requirements beginning in 2028
• Internet expenses no longer count toward shelter cost calculations
• Future Thrifty Food Plan updates must be cost-neutral

The Congressional Budget Office estimates these changes could lead to benefit reductions for millions of Americans. Multiple analysts project significant impacts, with Urban Institute research suggesting the changes may affect up to 3 million people including many young adults.

Data Hunger: Where Researchers Can Still Find Information

The final USDA report will be released on October 22, 2025, covering 2024 data. After this, researchers will lose the government's standardized analysis but not all access to food security statistics.

The Census Bureau will continue collecting the raw data through its Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS). This data remains available through several channels:

• The Census Bureau's Food Security website houses data from 2010 to present
• IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) harmonizes CPS data for research use
• The Census Microdata API provides programmatic access to food security datasets
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) offers pre-2010 data

However, without the USDA's standardized reporting, tracking national and state-level food insecurity trends becomes more challenging for policymakers, community organizations, and researchers.

Community Response: Local Measurement Continues

Local food assistance organizations plan to maintain their own tracking systems despite losing this national measurement tool.

Food banks across the country have developed regional systems to identify needs in their service areas. "We want to make sure that everybody in southeast Missouri has the food they need," said Lisa Collier of the Southeast Missouri Food Bank, adding that her organization's mission remains unchanged despite the national data gap.

The USDA indicated it "will continue to prioritize statutory requirements and where necessary, use the bevy of more timely and accurate data sets available to it," though it did not specify which alternative data sources it considers superior to the survey being discontinued.

Food Insecurity Definition and Measurement

The USDA defines food security as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." The measurement tool being discontinued, the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM), categorizes households based on responses to questions about:

• Worrying about food running out before having money to buy more
• Instances when food didn't last and there wasn't money for more
• Inability to afford balanced meals
• Skipping meals due to lack of money
• Eating less than needed because of limited resources
• Going hungry because of inability to afford food

The Current Population Survey is conducted monthly by the Census Bureau, surveying approximately 50,000 households on labor force participation, with the Food Security Supplement added once annually.

The USDA has published the resulting analysis annually for 30 years, spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations until now.

What Happens Next

The October 22 release will mark the final USDA Household Food Security Report. While Census Bureau data collection continues, the standardized government analysis of food insecurity trends will cease. Researchers can still access raw data through Census Bureau platforms. Food banks and advocacy organizations will need to develop alternative methods to track national hunger trends.