Food Insecurity in the United States: An Overview

Approximately 13 million American children and 23 million adults live in food-insecure households—households where there is “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate or safe foods”; and almost 10 million Americans experience hunger. During the past several decades, much progress has been made in our understanding of the prevalence, experience, and detrimental consequences of food insecurity and hunger for US families, adults, and children. This article reviews the latest research, offers a broad summary of the phenomena of food insecurity and hunger as they are experienced in the US, and proposes a policy-based research agenda for the future.