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A new study by the nonpartisan nonprofit Hunger Free America found that 75% of New York State families earning less than $100,000 annually faced higher costs of living in the past year. Half of those families said it was harder for them to afford the amount and quality of food they and/or their household needed.
In contrast, only seven percent of such households said that their living costs decreased, and only 20% said it was easier to afford food. Fifty percent said that the food they bought just didn’t last, and that they didn’t have money to get more. Forty-eight percent said they couldn’t afford balanced meals.
A separate study by Hunger Free America, which is headquartered in New York, also found that 76% of the state’s charitable food pantries and soup kitchens now lack adequate resources to meet the growing demand for food.
The data released by Hunger Free America today partially fills in the information gap created when the Trump administration’s USDA cancelled the department’s longstanding annual study on household food security. This data comes from two separate studies: one survey of more than 1,719 households nationwide (204 of which are in New York State) with annual incomes below $100,000 (conducted mostly before SNAP benefits were delayed due to the federal government shutdown) and one survey of 695 charitable food pantries and soup kitchens across all 50 states (76 of which are in New York State).
Hunger Free America also released a policy report detailing concrete ways the nation can better address the affordability crisis and boost economic opportunity for all. This policy report calls for moving beyond a reliance on means-tested programs aimed at mostly the impoverished in order to focus more broadly on helping a wide array of Americans obtain—and maintain—a full stake in the American dream. The report calls for both universal programs, as well as comprehensive policies to specifically help struggling Americans move from owing to owning by developing assets.
These reports were released today in New York City at an event at the Union Square Greenmarket with Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg and GrowNYC’s Assistant Director for Food Access Initiatives and Partnerships at Grow NYC, Tutu Badaru.
Top findings of the survey of 204 New York families with an annual income below $100,000:
- In families with children, 24% said they were forced to buy food that was less nutritious for their children, 31% had to reduce portion sizes for their children, 19% said they had to deprive their children of some meals, and 12% said they were only able to feed some—but not all—of their children.
- Even many families earning between $75,000 to $100,000 per year—previously considered to be solidly middle class—are struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table. Fully 75% of respondents in that income category said that the prices they paid for food and other basic living costs in the last year increased either greatly or somewhat, compared to only four percent who said such prices decreased somewhat or greatly. Fully 39% said it was much harder or a bit harder in the last year to afford the amount and quality of food they and/or their household needed, compared to 33% who said it was much easier or a bit easier to afford such food. Thirty-five percent said that the food they bought just didn’t last, and that they didn’t have money to get more. Fully 33% said they couldn’t afford balanced meals.
- These struggles greatly harm Republicans, Democrats, and Independents/third-party supporters alike. Even among self-identified Republicans, whose average incomes were a bit higher than the average for survey respondents overall, 67% said that the prices they paid for food and other basic living costs in the last year increased either greatly or somewhat, compared to 13% who said such prices decreased somewhat or greatly. Fifty-three percent said that the food they bought just didn’t last, and that they didn’t have money to get more. Forty-four percent said they couldn’t afford balanced meals.
- Significant numbers of respondents saw their government food assistance cut or entirely eliminated due to program reductions insisted upon by conservatives.
- Twenty-seven percent of respondents obtained free food from food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, or other food charities, but these hard-pressed programs were able to meet only a small fraction of the growing need. Of the respondents who were forced to use such food charities, 60% had to wait over an hour for food, 56% went to agencies that ran out of food, 51% said the agencies couldn’t meet their dietary or cultural needs, and 56% said the agencies didn’t have enough food to fully feed them and their families.
Said Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg, “These reports prove that sky-high living costs, combined with the overall decline of the middle class, caused a major hunger crisis even before the shutdown. These reports demonstrate that the nation’s affordability crisis—combined with deep cuts in the social safety net—are the top reasons that U.S. hunger is skyrocketing, impacting even many upper-middle-class families. This new data should be a wake-up call for federal, state, and local officials to enact sweeping new policies to slash hunger, strengthen the middle class, and boost economic opportunity for all.”
Top findings of Hunger Free America’s separate survey of 76 food charities across New York State:
- Fully 88% of these programs reported feeding an increasing number of New Yorkers in the last year, and 76% struggled to have enough food to meet the growing demand.
- Programs reported 83% of their clients were facing federal food aid reductions or complete cut-offs.
- During the government shutdown, 100% of surveyed programs saw an increase in new clients seeking their help. More specifically, 62% of feeding programs reported the number of new clients seeking their help had increased greatly, while 38% reported the number of new clients had increased somewhat.
Continued Berg, “This data is the latest proof that, while charities can fill a tiny portion of the food need, they are a wholly inadequate substitute for enabling Americans to obtain their own food through a society that guarantees living wage jobs and an adequate safety net.”
In an event in Washington, D.C. last week unveiling the national findings of the survey, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said, “Hunger Free America’s new reports show just how pervasive hunger is in our country. But instead of stepping in to help Americans, the Trump administration is doing the opposite—cutting the very programs that feed hungry families.” Senator Gillibrand continued, “By cutting food aid programs like SNAP, the Trump administration is undermining a critical lifeline that nearly 3 million New Yorkers rely on to put food on the table. The administration must put the American people first and take action to curb hunger.”
Said New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, “Hunger Free America’s new report is further proof of how urgent the need to combat hunger and the affordability crisis in New York is. Families should not have to choose between paying their bills and putting food on the table. But Republicans made the largest cut to SNAP in the history of the program and during the government shutdown Trump withheld SNAP benefits from millions of seniors, veterans, and children across the country. I hope this report is a wakeup call to Congressional Republicans and the Administration so that they may finally join me in fighting for a future where no New Yorker is going hungry.”
“In the face of rising costs, over 1.5 million New Yorkers experience food insecurity. Without adequate incomes, parents are forced to make impossible choices between keeping a roof over their family’s heads and feeding their children,” said Mayor’s Office of Food Policy Executive Director Kate MacKenzie. “This report spotlights the crisis of hunger and economic uncertainty, which is only exacerbated by the federal government’s unconscionable actions to weaken SNAP and jeopardize families’ well-being. New Yorkers deserve the dignity of stable incomes that afford them self-sufficiency and a strong safety net that guarantees they can buy nutritious, culturally appropriate food.”
Said Benjamin Kupersmit, president of Kupersmit Research, the strategic survey research firm that designed the survey of limited-income Americans for Hunger Free America, “We all need reliable information to guide our decisions, and we are glad this survey fills in a small portion of the gap created when USDA stopped measuring hunger in America. This data shows urgency. Our firm has conducted similar work through the pandemic and after it, and we can see in both the numbers and the people’s comments that there is real pain and need out there. Hopefully, this survey helps give significant attention to that need.”
More information on hunger in New York:
- The number of New York State residents without enough food over two seven-day periods was 76.1% higher in the period between August and September of 2024 than in the same August through September period in 2021. This is in contrast to a 55.2% increase nationwide during that same time period.
- Across New York City, 14.3% of the population, or 1.2 million people, lived in food insecure households between 2021 and 2023.
- The Bronx is New York City’s hungriest borough in terms of prevalence, with 19.1% of residents (227,086 people) living in food insecure households.
- Queens contains the highest number of individuals living in food insecure households in New York City, reaching 310,310 people between 2021 and 2023.
- Earlier this year H.R. 1, the “Big Bill,” cut SNAP by $186 billion, the largest cut in history. And most recently, the delay in the delivery of SNAP benefits during the federal shutdown further highlighted the food hardships faced by tens of millions of Americans.
