CALIFORNIA – Hunger Free America recently published a report and found that overall 12.4% of Californians faced food insecurity in 2024.
Specifically, the number of Californians who didn’t have enough to eat over two one-week periods increased by 54.1% between August/September 2021 and August/September 2024.
“The number of food insecure Americans skyrocketed, from 34 million in 2021 to 47 million in 2023, a 40 percent hike,” said Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg.
According to USDA data, the states with the highest rates of food insecure individuals from 2021-2023 were Texas (20.9%), Arkansas (17.9%), Louisiana (16.8%), Oklahoma (16.5%), Mississippi (16.1%), and Kentucky (15.3%).
Berg said that while inflation played some role in this hunger surge, the main reason was the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) cash benefits and the rollback of expanded SNAP and school meals benefits, curtailed mostly due to the insistence of Congressional conservatives.
30% of Californians eligible for SNAP but not receiving benefits
According to the report, from 2021 to 2023, 16.7% of children, 9.8% of employed adults, and 8.4% of older Californians struggled with hunger.
The report also found that 30% of Californians, in 2019, were eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits but not receiving them.
Hunger Free America recommends federal policy to restore the expansion of the CTC and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low income working people.
Their other recommendations include ensuring the Farm Bill strengthens SNAP and other food assistance programs, funding universal school meals nationwide and passing the HOPE Act.
They say the Hope Act can fund pilot projects that enable people to apply for multiple benefits online and to buy a first home, to start a new business, and save for education or retirement.
System rigged by the elites
In addition to struggling just to make daily ends meet, Berg says millions of Americans cannot achieve key indicators of the American dream – owning a home, going to college, or saving a sufficient nest egg for retirement.
He says even before the pandemic fueled inflation, many Americans could not afford the cost of living.
“Most Americans correctly ascribe this societal decline to our political and economic systems being rigged against them by the elites,” said Berg.
He goes on to say that any party serious about reform must wean themselves from their own addiction to big-monied interests, advocate banning stock trading by Members of Congress and push for a Constitutional Amendment to limit campaign and lobbying spending.
To read the full Hunger Free America report visit https://hfa-website.cdn.prismic.io/hfa-website/Z0ZCZZbqstJ97zAf_2024NationalHungerReport.pdf
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