What is Food Insecurity and What Does it Look Like in America?

Food insecurity refers to USDA’s measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods.

Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time.  Food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods. 

In early 2011, Feeding America first published the Map the Meal Gap project to help put visualize what food insecurity exists and what it looks like in your community.  

To learn more about food insecurity in the U.S. and interact with Map the Meal Gap, click here.