Background/objectives: This paper examines hunger over time to analyze how food insecurity is impacted by reduced income, including household funding from the government. Federal policies and community-based programs have the ability to prevent increases in food insecurity, particularly for populations that have risk factors, such as households with children; single-parent households; low-income households, especially those in rural areas; Black and Hispanic households; and, households experiencing economic hardships.
Methods: This study is bas ed on a cross-sectional survey that was administered in 2018 and 2019 to food pantry clients, an already food insecure population accessing resources, in Eastern Massachusetts. Baseline surveys were matched with a 3-month follow-up survey (n = 308) and multinomial logistic mixed effect models were used to analyze the association between change in household hunger and change in household income.
Results: This study found that participants who experienced decreased income compared to no income change from baseline to follow-up had 2.16 times the odds (95% CI: 1.05, 4.46) of experiencing increased household hunger compared to no change in hunger from baseline to follow-up, after adjusting for all other covariates.
Conclusions: Food insecurity in the United States remained stable during the beginning of COVID-19, despite prevalence of reduced household income. The expanded government benefits that were implemented early in the pandemic contributed to total household income, which prevented increased food insecurity. Increased food insecurity after the removal of benefits starting in 2022 indicates the importance of continuing support established during times when consistent income is compromised to prevent a delayed rise in food insecurity.
Keywords: federal assistance programs; food banks; food insecurity; food pantries; income change; public health intervention.