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Contributing EconomistDiane Whitmore SchanzenbachNorthwestern University
SEPTEMBER 2020Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 2
Prior to COVID-19, even in the midst of a strong economy with a
record streak of job growth and low unemployment rates, in 2018
nearly 8 million (4 percent) American adults reported that members
of their households sometimes or often did not have enough to eat.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse
Survey (collected April 23, 2020 through July 21, 2020), during
COVID-19, that number has surged to 26–29 million, or 11 percent of
adults. Who are the hungry in America today? This report provides
a description of who didn’t have enough to eat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) widely used food
insecurity rate includes a range of those experiencing food
hardships, including those who lack enough money for food and
those who couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals. About 1 in 4 adults
are estimated to be food insecure during COVID-19. This report
goes a step deeper to highlight the subset of this group who are
experiencing severe food insecurity, meaning they reported they
sometimes or often didn’t have enough food (see sidebar).
Not surprising, groups that are most likely to not have enough to
eat are those that typically disproportionately experience poverty:
Black and Latinx families, those with less than a college education,
and children. Approximately 1 in 5 Black and Latinx adults report
they do not have enough to eat. What is more surprising is the
extent of hunger. It’s not just the poorest families who are facing this
struggle; among those who don’t have enough to eat, 1 in 4 have
usual incomes above $50,000 per year. During this crisis, many
have become unemployed, others who have kept their jobs have
seen their earnings decrease due to reduced hours, and others
are expecting to lose earnings in the next month. The economic
shocks they have experienced have pushed many into hunger —
potentially for the first time.
Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis
FRAC gratefully acknowledges sponsorship of this report from the General Mills Foundation, the Kellogg Company Fund, and PepsiCo.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Food Insecurity vs. Not Enough to Eat
The measure investigated
here — sometimes or often
not enough to eat — is a more
severe measure than the
concept of “food insecurity”
that is also tracked by USDA.
Food insecurity is a measure
indicating that a family did not
have consistent, dependable
access to enough food to live
an active, healthy lifestyle.
Food insecurity has not been
measured directly during
COVID-19; using available data
we can estimate that food
insecurity is 25 percent for
adults overall, and 32 percent
for those with children.
Eleven percent of adults and 14
percent of those with children
report that they sometimes
or often don’t have enough
to eat during COVID-19. The
share reporting they don’t
have enough to eat closely
tracks with the share identified
by USDA as having Very Low
Food Security (VLFS), meaning
that the food intake of some
household members was
reduced and normal eating
patterns were disrupted due to
lack of resources.
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 3
Each year, USDA collects a detailed survey on
households’ experiences with food access, including
asking respondents to choose which statement best
describes the food eaten in their homes in the last
year: enough of the kinds of foods we want to eat;
enough, but not always the kinds of food we want;
sometimes not enough to eat; or often not enough to
eat. In 2018, 3.7 percent of respondents overall and
with children reported that they sometimes or often
did not have enough to eat as shown in Figure 1.
During COVID-19, the Census Bureau has been
asking one question, drawn from the larger set
of annual USDA questions, in which respondents
choose among the same options to describe
the food available during the past week. Overall,
between 10.2 and 11.0 percent of respondents
report that they don’t have enough food. Rates are
higher among those with children. In May and June,
13.6 percent of respondents with children said that
they didn’t have enough food. In July, that number
was 14.4 percent.3
Figure 1 also shows that the share reporting
they don’t have enough to eat increases during
economic recessions. In 2008, the first year of
the Great Recession, the share without enough
to eat increased by just over one-third overall
and for respondents with children compared with
the prior year. The COVID-19 recession has been
2005
16.0%
12.0%
8.0%
4.0%
0.0%
2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 May2020
Respondentsw/ Children
RespondentsOverall
Pe
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rep
ort
ing
th
ey
som
etim
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do
no
t h
ave
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to
eat
June2020
July2020
Who Doesn’t Have Enough to Eat?
Figure 1. Share of Adults (Overall and With Children) Reporting Their Household Sometimes or Often Does Not Have Enough to Eat: 2005–2018 and May–July 2020
Research has already found that the following have
reduced hunger and other measures of food hardship:
Payments from the new Pandemic Electronic Benefit
Transfer (P-EBT) program, which provides resources
to families who lost access to free or reduced-price
school meals, lifted 2.7–3.9 million children out of
hunger in the subsequent weeks1 since the pandemic
began; and evidence from the prior recession shows
that increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) benefits
helped people and the economy, reducing food
insecurity and also stimulating the local economy.2
In the face of continued high rates of hunger,
Congress should turn to these proven programs —
continuing to provide P-EBT payments as long as
schools aren’t following their normal schedules, and
increasing maximum SNAP benefits by 15 percent.
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 4
characterized by a larger and more rapid increase
in unemployment rates than the Great Recession,
which explains some of the reasons why the rate of
those reporting not enough to eat has spiked so high
in recent months. Of course, widespread closures of
schools and child care centers that usually provide
meals to children is also a contributing factor.
The shares without enough to eat during COVID-19
are disproportionately high among Black and
Latinx respondents — especially among those
with children. As shown in Figure 2, more than 1
in 5 Black and Latinx adults with children reported
in July that they sometimes or often did not have
enough to eat. Note that even prior to COVID-19, in
2018 there were stark disparities across groups with
Black respondents more than three times as likely
as white and Asian respondents who reported not
having enough to eat. Every group has seen their
rates of hunger more than double between 2018
and today, with rates quadrupling among Latinx
respondents (overall and with children). Across every
group, respondents with children in their homes are
more likely to report that they don’t have enough to
eat. A similar pattern holds across education levels
(not shown), with 16 percent lacking enough to eat
among those with a high school diploma or less,
10 percent among those with some college, and
3 percent among those with a college degree or
more. For respondents with children, the rates are
21 percent (high school or less), 13 percent (some
college) and 4 percent (college degree). Rates of
hunger are consistently high across all adult age
levels, and are lower among older adults.
The share reporting not enough to eat varies
predictably by annual income — with rates much
higher among those with the lowest incomes. During
COVID-19, 28 percent of those with usual incomes
below $25,000 per year reported not having enough
to eat (compared with 11 percent in 2018). The share
declines across groups of usual annual income but
is still reasonably common among those with higher
income levels — 1 in 4 of those reporting not having
enough to eat had usual incomes above $50,000
per year. Although across the board every group
experienced job losses during COVID-19, those with
lower levels of usual income were more likely to lose
their jobs.
Pe
rce
nt
rep
ort
ing
th
ey
som
etim
es
or
oft
en
d
o n
ot
have
en
ou
gh
to
eat
Pe
rce
nt
rep
ort
ing
th
ey
som
etim
es
or
oft
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d
o n
ot
have
en
ou
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to
eat
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2% 2%
7%
2% 2%
5%
8%
4%
9%10%
23%
20%
17%
7%9%
20%
5%6%
19%
15%
White Black Latinx Asian Other Race
2018
White Black Latinx Asian Other Race
July 2020July 2020 2018
Panel B. Respondents with ChildrenPanel A. Respondents Overall
Figure 2. Share of Adults (Overall and With Children) Reporting Their Household Sometimes or Often Does Not Have Enough to Eat, by Race/Ethnicity: 2018 and July 2020
Black respondents more than three times as likely as white and Asian
respondents who reported not having enough to eat.
More than 1 in 5 Black and Latinx adults with children
reported in July that they sometimes or often did not
have enough to eat.
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 5
A deeper dive into the data shows how vast the
economic distress of COVID-19 has been — and how
closely it is tied to not having enough to eat. Panel
A of Figure 4 shows the share of adults who have
become economically vulnerable during COVID-19.
Twenty-one percent of adults report having become
unemployed themselves during COVID-19 — though
to be sure, some of those are expecting to be
recalled back to their old jobs when the situation
improves. Another 27 percent are workers “on the
edge”: while they themselves are working, they have
either experienced a loss of income due to another
household member’s job loss, fewer hours worked or
other types of reductions, or expect to experience a
loss of job and/or income in the next month. Among
workers on the edge, 90 percent report they have
already experienced a loss of income, and half report
that they both have already lost income and still
expect to lose more. Those with children are more
likely to have lost a job, or to be an employed worker
on the edge.
Panel B of Figure 4 shows the rate of reporting not
enough to eat among those made economically
vulnerable during COVID-19. Overall, 21 percent of
those who lost their jobs during COVID-19 report
not having enough to eat. Workers have not been
Pe
rce
nt
rep
ort
ing
so
me
tim
es
or
oft
en
no
t e
no
ug
h t
o e
at
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
COVID-19
2018
$100,000+ $75,000–$99,999
$50,000–$74,999
$35,000–$49,999
$25,000–$34,999
$0–$24,999
1 % 1 % 2 %3 %
5 %
8 %
11 %
4 %
8 %
12 %
16 %
28 %
Figure 3. Share of Adults Overall Reporting Their Household Sometimes or Often Does Not Have Enough to Eat, by Usual Annual Income: 2018 and May–July 2020
Figure 4. Economic Vulnerability During COVID-19
Families Don’t Have Enough to Eat because of the COVID-19 Economy
Pe
rce
nt
of p
eo
ple
wh
o lo
st t
he
ir jo
bs
or
we
re “
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OV
ID-1
9P
erc
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ally
vu
lne
rab
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ho
re
po
rt s
om
etim
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oft
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no
ug
h t
o e
at
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
21%
21%
13%
24%
14%
27% 26%
31%
Lostown job
Worker“on the edge”
Worker“on the edge”
Lostown job
Lostown job
Worker“on the edge”
Worker“on the edge”
Lostown job
Panel A. Percent Economically Vulnerableduring COVID-19
Panel B. Share of Economically Vulnerablewithout Enough to Eat
Adults Overall Adults w/ Children
Adults Overall Adults w/ Children
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 6
spared: 13 percent of those who are themselves
still working, but are on the edge due to household
income losses, or who expected losses, report not
having enough to eat.
As has consistently been the case throughout this
analysis, those with children are worse off. Not
only are they more likely to have experienced
job losses or income losses, but, conditional on
experiencing these, they are more likely to not have
enough to eat. The impact on children is further
compounded by children’s loss of meals in schools
and childcare sites.
Figure 4 shows the high rates of economic
vulnerability overall, but job losses have been higher
for Black and Latinx households, as well as for those
with lower levels of education. Job losses have also
been higher in some service sectors, such as food
service and travel.4 Figure 5 separates the measures
of economic vulnerability — among those who either
lost their own job, or lost or expect to lose household
income — by race and ethnicity. A majority of Black
and Latinx respondents have experienced economic
vulnerability, with much higher rates than whites.
Asian respondents and those in the “other race”
category fall in between. Economic vulnerability
results in not having enough to eat at substantially
higher rates for Black and Latinx respondents.
Among the economically vulnerable, 28 percent of
Blacks, 22 percent of Latinx, and 21 percent of the
other race group report not having enough to eat
overall, with 29, 23, and 22 percent, respectively,
among those with children. Similar patterns hold
across income level and education — with those
usually earning less or with lower levels of education
losing jobs and incomes at higher rates, and with
economic vulnerability resulting in not having
enough to eat at higher rates.
Pe
rce
nt
of ad
ults
wh
o li
st jo
bs
or
are
“wo
rke
rs o
n t
he
ed
ge
”
Pe
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of e
ceo
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ally
vu
lne
rab
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ho
re
po
rt s
om
etim
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or
oft
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no
ug
h t
o e
at
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Panel A. Percent Economically Vulnerableduring COVID-19, by Race/Ethnicity
Panel B. Percent of the Economically Vulnerable without Enough to Eat
Adults Overall Adults w/ Children Adults Overall Adults w/ Children
55% 55%
61% 62%68%
58%
42%
50%52% 51%28%
29%
22%
Black Hispanic
Asian White
Other Race
23% 22%
10%12% 12%
13%
21%
Black Hispanic
Asian White
Other Race
Figure 5. Economic Vulnerability During COVID-19, by Race/Ethnicity
Despite how stark these numbers are, they would
surely be worse if not for the historic relief efforts
from Congress. Between topping up Unemployment
Insurance benefits, providing Economic Impact
Payments, creating P-EBT, and implementing smart
reforms to SNAP, Congress took helpful steps
at the beginning of the pandemic to buffer the
impact of the economic shock; however, this is
not enough. Too many have not received relief
payments adequate to weather the current
economic storm, and Congress has not yet adopted
or extended policies known to alleviate effectively
food hardship — and do so in a targeted and
temporary manner.5
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 7
Who Doesn’t Have Enough to Eat During COVID-19?
We have seen that Black and Latinx populations,
and those with lower levels of education, are more
likely to not have enough to eat and have been
disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19
economic shock.
Figure 6 shows population characteristics of those
without enough to eat during COVID-19. As shown
in Panel A of Figure 6, 42 percent of those without
enough to eat are whites, followed by 27 percent
Latinx, 22 percent Black, 3 percent Asian, and the
remainder comprising other races. As shown in
Panel B, 61 percent have an education level no
higher than a high school diploma, with 30 percent
having some college, and 9 percent with a college
degree or more. As shown in Panel C, 44 percent
have usual incomes less than $25,000 per year;
one-third have usual incomes between $25,000 and
$49,999, and 23 percent have usual incomes above
$50,000 — many of whom have seen large drops in
their incomes at this time.
Women disproportionately do not have enough to
eat, and have been more likely to lose their jobs
during COVID-19. Of those without enough to eat,
54 percent overall are women, and among those
with children who lack adequate food, 60 percent
of them are women. Those age 60 or older without
enough to eat are also more likely to be women
(58 percent).
In 21 states and the District of Columbia, more than 1
in 10 adults overall report not having enough to eat,
as shown in Figure 7, Panel A. As always, rates are
worse for those with children. In 38 states and the
District of Columbia, more than 1 in 10 adults with
children say they don’t have enough to eat.
White Black
Asian Other
Latinx
$0 to$24.9K
$25K to$49.9K
$50K to$99.9K
<=HS Some College BA+
42% 61% 44%30%
33%22%
27%
23%
3% 6% 9%
Panel A. Race/Ethnicity ofThose Without Enough to Eat
Panel B. Education Level ofThose Without Enough to Eat
Panel C. Usual Annual Income of Those Without Enough to Eat
Figure 6. Characteristics of Those Without Enough to Eat
In 21 states and the District of Columbia, more than 1 in 10 adults overall report not
having enough to eat.
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 8
11CA
7CO
8UT
7ME
8KS
7ID
9MT
9SD
9VA
9PA
9OR
8ND
8WA
8WY
8NE
10AZ
11NM
10IL
10MO
10MI
10IN
10OH
11KY
11WV
11NY
11NC11
TN11OK
14TX
7IA
6MN 7
WI
12AR
12AL
12NV
15LA
17MS
12FL
12GA
12SC
9 DE
11 MD
8 HI
12 DC
10 NJ
10 CT
9 RI
7 MA
6 NH
6 VT
8AK
17%
16%
15%
14%
13%
12%
11%
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
15CA
9CO
9UT
9ME
11KS
10ID
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13SD
11VA
13PA
13OR
11ND
10WA
11WY
11NE
14AZ
15NM
14IL
12MO
13MI
14IN
14OH
14KY
15WV
14NY
15NC15
TN14OK
17TX
10IA
9MN 10
WI
15AR
16AL
14NV
20LA
20MS
17FL
13GA
15SC
12 DE
16 MD
11 HI
22 DC
13 NJ
13 CT
15 RI
9 MA
9 NH
7 VT
11AK
22%
20%
17%
16%
15%
14%
13%
12%
11%
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
Figure 7. Percent Reporting Not Enough to Eat, by State
Respondents Experiencing Hunger, Overall
Respondents With Children Who Are Experiencing Hunger
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 9
Food is Key, but It’s About More than Food
Conclusion
Those who report not having enough to eat are also
experiencing other aspects of economic turmoil. As
shown in Figure 8 below, a majority of those without
enough to eat say they expect to lose employment
income in the next month. One-third say that they
are not at all confident that they can make their
next housing payment, and nearly half are not at all
confident that they can afford the food they need
over the next month. More than one-third report that
they did not make their last housing payment. More
than 80 percent of those without enough to eat
reported experiencing bad mental health symptoms
at least half of the days in the prior week, including
nervousness/anxiety, inability to stop worrying, little
interest in doing things, and feeling down, depressed
or hopeless. Rates of bad mental health symptoms
among those without enough to eat are 20 to 30
percentage points higher than those among the
population overall.
In addition to being more likely to not have enough
to eat, others have found that death rates from
COVID-19 are higher for Black and Latinx people
of all ages — with differences in death rates much
higher for those at younger ages, including death
rates 10 times higher among Black individuals
between the ages of 35 to 44 years old, and seven
times higher for those who are 45 to 54 years old.
Rates for Latinx people are slightly lower than for
Black people, but still well above white death rates.6
During COVID-19, far too many Americans report
that they do not have enough to eat. This is not a
problem limited to certain populations or regions.
Approximately 1 in 5 Black and Latinx adults say they
do not have enough to eat, as do 1 in 14 white and
Asian adults. In the vast majority of states more than
1 in 10 adults with children don’t have enough to eat.
Most have been pushed into this state by job loss.
Many others are still employed, but have lost hours
or earnings, as well as other supports, which have
pushed them into hunger. Across the board, those with
children are more likely to not have enough to eat.
Congress has a number of proven policies that it
can adopt to help struggling families get enough to
eat. In particular, increasing maximum SNAP benefits
and extending the P-EBT program, which provides
benefits to those who lost access to free or reduced-
price school meals, are two of the most effective
food assistance policies.7 Congress should, without
delay, act to increase maximum SNAP benefits by 15
percent and extend P-EBT payments, so that fewer
people in America will go without enough to eat.
w/ ChildrenOverall
Expect an HH job loss in the next 4 weeks due to COVID
“Not at all” confident inability to pay mortgage
or rent
“Not at all” confident that HH will be able to a�ord the kinds
of foods needed for the next 4 weeks
Didn’t pay last mortgage/rent
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
65% 68%
33% 35%
48%45%
36% 38%
Figure 8. Widespread Economic Distress among Those Without Enough to Eat
FRAC n Not Enough to Eat: COVID-19 Deepens America’s Hunger Crisis n www.FRAC.org 10
Endnotes1 Bauer, Lauren, Abigail Pitts, Krista Ruffini, and Diane Schanzenbach. “The Effect of Pandemic-EBT on
Measures of Food Hardship,” Brookings Institution, July 30, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/research/
the-effect-of-pandemic-ebt-on-measures-of-food-hardship/
2 Schanzenbach, Diane, Lauren Bauer, and Greg Nantz. “Twelve Facts about Food Insecurity and SNAP,” The
Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution, April 2016. https://www.hamiltonproject.org/assets/files/twelve_
facts_about_food_insecurity_and_snap.pdf
3 Differences between May and June are not statistically significant, but July rates are statistically higher
than those in May and June. The Census Household Pulse is collected online, while the annual survey
typically is collected through a telephone survey. Research suggests that reported rates of food hardship
are lower in surveys collected in person or via telephone compared to those collected online, possibly due
to respondents’ social desirability bias when responding to a live interviewer (Karpman, Michael, Stephen
Zuckerman, and Dulce Gonzalez. 2018. “The Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey: A New Data Source for
Monitoring the Health and Well-Being of Individuals and Families.” Washington: Urban Institute).
4 Montenovo, Laura, Xuan Jiang, Felipe Lozano Rojas, Ian M. Schmutte, Kosali Simon, Bruce A. Weinberg, and
Coady Wing. “Unequal Employment Impacts of COVID-19.” Econofact, June 1, 2020. https://econofact.org/
unequal-employment-impacts-of-covid-19
5 Bitler, Marianne, Hilary Hoynes, and Diane Schanzenbach. “The social safety net in the wake of COVID-19.”
Forthcoming, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
6 “Race gaps in COVID-19 deaths are even bigger than they appear” by Tiffany Ford, Sarah Reber, and
Richard V. Reeves, Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/06/16/race-gaps-
in-covid-19-deaths-are-even-bigger-than-they-appear/
7 Hoynes and Schanzenbach argue for an automatic 15 percent increase in maximum SNAP benefits during
recessions as an automatic stabilizer. See Hoynes, Hilary and Diane Schanzenbach, “Strengthening SNAP
as an Automatic Stabilizer,” in Boushey, Heather, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh, eds., Recession Ready:
Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy. The Hamilton Project and Washington Center on
Equitable Growth.