U.S.D.A. Terminates Annual Household Food Security Report

At Voices for Children in Nebraska, we believe that good public policy starts with good data. Last week, our Executive Director, Juliet Summers, joined fellow KIDSCOUNT grantees for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Data Institute: an event dedicated to strengthening the use of data in achieving opportunity for all children nationwide. Through data-informed advocacy over the decades, we have been able to spot trends, highlight systemic barriers, and address laws and policies to fill gaps and change futures.

This week, however, the U.S.D.A. announced it will no longer publish the Household Food Security Report—a critical dataset that has helped illuminate the scope of hunger in America for the past 30 years. Based on past reports, we know that 105,393 households in Nebraska were food insecure in 2023. This marks a 27% increase from 2020, a time in which positive policy choices, such as the Child Tax Credit and a rise in income eligibility for SNAP, limited the spread of food insecurity at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as those supports were taken away and food prices climbed, food insecurity spread. We know this because of the Household Food Security Report. The decision to stop publishing it threatens to obscure the reality of child hunger in Nebraska and across the country, making it harder for advocates and policymakers to respond effectively.

Without reliable, long-term data, we lose the ability to track progress, identify disparities, and hold systems accountable. With budget cuts to SNAP and school meal programs, the decision not to publish this report is a refusal to acknowledge the truth: there are hungry children in our state and country, and unless we change course from current policy choices, there will most likely be more in the coming years. Voices for Children remains committed to using the best available data to tell the truth about what children and families are experiencing—and to push for policies that reflect that truth.