Use of the emergency food system among food insecure, low-income households in the United States 2015 to 2020

ABSTRACT

The emergency food system (EFS) is a critical part of the United States’ social safety net. Using 2015–2020 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data, we identified trends in EFS use among food insecure, low-income households by estimating the probability of EFS use adjusting for demographics using multivariable logistic regression. From 2015 to 2019, between 31.0% and 34.4% of households received emergency food, while 42.4% did in 2020. EFS use did not increase in 2020 compared to prior years for older adults and non-metropolitan households. Targeted outreach should be used to expand the reach of this resource to underserved and marginalized populations.”

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• emergency food
• food assistance
• current population survey

Acknowledgements

PJB is supported by Award Number T32DK083250 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). KMB is supported by Award Number F31HD107980 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). SV is supported by Award Number T32GM008244 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Additionally, the authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Minnesota Population Center (P2C HD041023) and the use of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Current Population Survey (R01HD067258) both funded through grants from NICHD. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official view of the NIDDK, NICHD, NIGMS, or National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2022.2131497

Authorship

All authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study. PJB and LH conceptualized the study. All authors contributed to the study design and analysis. PJB and LH wrote the first draft. All authors revised subsequent drafts and gave final approval of the work.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [F31HD107980]; National Institute of General Medical Sciences [T32GM008244]; National institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases [T32DK083250].