Food Security and Nutrition Assistance
ERS monitors the food security of U.S. households through an annual, nationally representative survey. While most U.S. households are food secure, a minority of U.S. households experience food insecurity at times during the year, meaning that their access to adequate food for active, healthy living is limited by lack of money and other resources. Some experience very low food security, a more severe range of food insecurity where food intake of one or more members is reduced and normal eating patterns are disrupted. Reliable monitoring of food security contributes to the effective operation of USDA’s food and nutrition assistance programs aimed at reducing food insecurity.
Federal spending on USDA's food and nutrition assistance programs totaled $166.4 billion in fiscal year 2023, 13 percent less than fiscal year 2022, adjusted for inflation. Inflation-adjusted spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the largest USDA nutrition assistance program, was 9 percent lower than the previous year. Spending on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increased by 11 percent. In fiscal year 2023, combined spending on child nutrition programs decreased by 24 percent compared to fiscal year 2022. Combined spending on other programs fell in fiscal year 2023, primarily due to lower spending on Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) in its final year of operation.