Food Insecurity Education Resource Center
What is Food Security?
Food security is defined as all people, at all times, having physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meet their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
According to NPR’s article titled, Food Insecurity In The U.S. By The Numbers, it states that “Before the pandemic, the number of families experiencing food insecurity had been steadily falling. But now, as economic instability and a health crisis takes over, new estimates point to some of the worst rates of food insecurity in the United States in years.”
​
USDA 2021 Food Security Statistics & Graphics
According to the USDA Household Food Security Report published in 2021, the rates of food insecurity in 2021 were significantly higher than the national average of 10.2 percent for the following groups:
All Households
w/ Children
Households w/ Children < 6 yr
Single Female Head
of Household
.png)
Households w/ Hispanic Persons
Households w/ Black (Non- Hispanic) Persons
Households w/ Incomes < 185% of
Poverty Threshold
Single Male Head of Household
12.5%
12.9%
24.3%
16.2%
19.8%
26.5%
16.2%
What it boils down to is that hunger is often a racial equity issue.
The Historical structures or systems that perpetuate this problem continue on today.
According to Move For Hunger, “Throughout history, people of color in the United States have experienced discrimination and maltreatment when it comes to education, employment, housing, healthcare, and mass incarceration, among others. It is through these and other systems that structural racism is maintained as a result of historical actions that continue to be felt today. Because of this, these marginalized communities have dealt with poverty and food insecurity at a much higher rate than white people.”
PCC Students & Food Security
According to a survey in 2019, 48% of students in two-year institutions and 41% of students at four-year institutions experienced food insecurity. This issue, in conjunction with homelessness and housing insecurity, impacted over six million individuals working to better themselves by earning a degree in 2020.
During the 30 days preceding the survey, approximately 41% of survey respondents at PCC experienced low or very low levels of food security. Moreover, 44% of survey respondents could not afford to eat balanced meals and 47% worried about running out of food before they had money to buy more.
​