About Food Insecurity
What is Food Insecurity?
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.
Across the United States in 2023:
47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households.
12.2 million adults lived in households with very low food security.
7.2 million children lived in food-insecure households in which children, along with adults, were food insecure.
841,000 children (1.2 percent of the Nation's children) lived in households in which one or more child experienced very low food security.
Rockland County isn’t exempt from these statistics, The New York State Department of Health ranks Rockland with the third highest percentage of adults who self-reported food insecurity in the state, outside of New York City.
Food insecurity and the lack of access to adequate quantities of nutritious food doesn’t just lead to hunger, it can have devastating effects on people’s health and well-being, including:
Malnutrition
Chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes
Depression
Anxiety
Social isolation
Difficulty concentrating
Low energy
Food Insecurity Among the Overall Population in Rockland County
There were an estimated 37,180 food insecure people in Rockland County in 2022, accounting for nearly 1 out of every 10 people in the county. Of those food insecure individuals, 31% were above the threshold for federal nutrition programs, highlighting the importance charitable food assistance.
Click the image to read the full report.
(Information obtained from Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap)
Looking for More Information About Food Insecurity?
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Feeding America is the largest charity working to end hunger in the United States.
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No Kid Hungry is a national campaign run by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world.
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Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger.
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Hunger Solutions New York is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating hunger.