New Feeding America Report Shares Insights from Nearly 36,000 People That Reveal What People Facing Hunger Want and Need

Published On: September 28th, 2022By Categories: Must Read3.9 min read

This past Friday, on Hunger Action Day, Feeding America released a new report, titled Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together: Community-Driven Solutions to Address America’s Hunger Crisis. It’s a first-of-its-kind report with key findings divided into four areas: prioritizing dignity, increasing access, expanding opportunity, and improving health. The bottom line? Collaboration is key. 92% of respondents agreed that to actually reduce hunger, the government, the private sector, nonprofits, local institutions, and communities must come together to create solutions. 

Listen & Learn

Earlier this summer, Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization of which Feeding San Diego is a member, launched the Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together nationwide community listening initiative. The initiative aimed to collect insights and input from people with lived experience. The goal was to listen and learn from people facing hunger. Feeding America’s long-term goal is to co-create innovative solutions to end hunger in partnership with communities, advocates, policymakers, and others. 

Key Findings from the New Feeding America Report

This week, Feeding America is participating in the first hunger conference in over 50 years held by the White House. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, & Health brings together the public and private sectors for concrete actions. By sharing the findings of the Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together report, Feeding America can ensure that the voices of people facing hunger inform the policy conversations that will follow. 

A woman and a young girl hold produce at a Feeding San Diego food distribution

A mother and daughter at a Feeding San Diego produce pantry

The anti-hunger solutions supported by the people with whom Feeding America spoke broadly focus on: 

  • Prioritizing the dignity of people facing hunger. 
    • Insights from people facing hunger can help Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture improve the design of federal nutrition programs to make them more effective, equitable, and inclusive. 
  • Increasing access to grocery stores and food assistance. 
    • Insights from people facing hunger demonstrate how hunger intersects with and is exacerbated by other issues, like access to transportation. Federal policymakers, and others, can use these insights to help ensure policies meet people where they are and address the various factors that contribute to food insecurity.
  • Expanding opportunity by addressing the root causes of hunger.
    • Insights from people facing hunger show that food insecurity is a symptom of many intersecting root causes. Causes may be economic and social conditions, race, and geography. Only by seeing hunger through the lens of larger, related challenges—and addressing those challenges—can our country truly hope to end it once and for all. 
  • Improving health outcomes for individuals and families experiencing food insecurity.
    • Insights from people facing hunger underscore the connection between hunger relief and improving health outcomes. 

Collaboration Is Key

The policy recommendations include ways to strengthen federal nutrition programs. In addition, it offers solutions for addressing the root causes of food insecurity to eradicate hunger across the nation. For example, the report recommends Congress increase benefit levels and expand eligibility criteria for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Called CalFresh in California, SNAP helps more people afford enough nutritious food. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said it was important to support people’s dignity and choices in what they feed their families. 78% want SNAP to make it easier to access healthy foods, not restrict food choices.  

Feeding San Diego CalFresh Booth at Third Avenue Charitable Organization in San Diego on October 22, 2021.

A Feeding San Diego CalFresh Coordinator works with a county caseworker to help a community member apply for SNAP.

Local Solutions to National Problems

At the local level, Feeding San Diego is working with elected officials to understand the nuances of the problem of hunger. This partnership helps provide food assistance in hunger hot spots.

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Feeding San Diego has distributed more food than ever in its 15-year history. With the impact of inflation, the organization will struggle to provide the meals needed by the hundreds of thousands of people facing hunger in the coming years without collaboration with local government and an increase in charitable donations. Feeding San Diego is spending more money purchasing food to meet demand.

Only through collaboration with the federal, state, and local government can hunger-relief organizations truly work to solve the hunger problem that has affected our nation for far too long.

This increase in spending is not sustainable in the long term. Only through collaboration with the federal, state, and local government can hunger-relief organizations truly work to solve the hunger problem that has affected our nation for far too long.  

Those interested can read the full report here. If you feel inspired to act, please consider becoming a monthly donor, making a donation, or volunteering for Feeding San Diego.