The U.S. Department of Agriculture is cancelling a survey that collects data on hunger. Missouri groups that use the data say it’s important for understanding food insecurity.
The department has collected the data for about 30 years. In a move first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Trump Administration said it's cancelling the questionnaire, an annual supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey.
The survey asks questions such as how often people couldn’t afford food that year or if they lost weight due to a lack of food. It specifically measured food insecurity, which the USDA calls a “household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” Hunger, an individual physiological condition, may result from food insecurity.
“With that data, we're able to kind of know estimates for food insecurity rates across the country and then also at the state level,” said University of Missouri Extension Senior Project Coordinator Bill McKelvey.
McKelvey authors the Missouri Hunger Atlas, an annual, statewide report on hunger.
“Also with that data, you can sort of understand how the issue affects different subpopulations,” he added. “For example, we know how food security status can differ based on race and ethnicity, based on household composition and other factors like that.”
The Hunger Atlas uses more than the Current Population Survey for its report — about a dozen data sources in total, according to McKelvey. But much of that data is from sources that don’t have direct data about hunger but instead use proxies and estimators to model what food insecurity in an area is.
For example, the non-profit Feeding America maintains a county-level map of food insecurity in America, called Map the Meal Gap.
According to the technical brief published alongside the most recent report, the map models food insecurity by using factors including “unemployment, poverty, disability, homeownership, and median income.”
“It is seen as being reliable and accurate, and so it's a good source of information, but it's different,” McKelvey. “It doesn't use that direct survey like the USDA does for their report. So, while it is well-regarded, it's a different way to measure food insecurity.”
Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap also incorporates data from the USDA’s survey.
Leigh Anne Haun is the executive director of Feeding Missouri, a coalition of Missouri food banks and a partner of Feeding America. She said the group uses the USDA’s data to communicate about the need for resources and the national organization has already been in contact since the government’s announcement.
“We're assured underlying data is going to continue to be collected, and they're already working to adapt their research and incorporate additional and more timely data resources,” she said. “We're all adjusting to it in the same timeline as everyone else.”
She added that while data can be useful for research and decision-makers, a lot of the day-to-day decisions by food banks are handled at the grassroots level.
"This household food security report — it has been a valuable tool, but even if that ends, our food banks are still going to see the real-time human impact every day,” she said. “We're going to see the parents, seniors and kids represented in those reports.”
The most recent report showed that in 2023, the country had its worst food insecurity rates in almost a decade. The 2024 report is still set to be released next month.
