Nearly 48 million Americans struggle to eat — and the problem is growing faster than most people realize

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47.9M people lived in food-insecure households in 2024. 1 in 7 U.S. households couldn't reliably afford food last year. 19 million Americans live in food deserts with no nearby grocery store.

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Food insecurity doesn't look like famine. It looks like a family choosing between groceries and rent. It looks like a parent skipping a meal, instead of their child. It looks like buying cheaper food with low nutritional value, instead of a healthy option. In 2024, the USDA confirmed that food insecurity affected nearly 1 in 7 American households, a rate significantly higher than it was just five years ago, and one that shows no sign of improving.

Across the U.S., millions of people live in food deserts — low-income neighborhoods where the nearest grocery store is more than a mile away in a city, or more than ten miles away in a rural area. For the 2.1 million Americans who also lack a car or public transit, buying fresh produce isn't just inconvenient, it's effectively impossible.

9 out of 10 counties with high food insecurity are rural. 8 out of 10 are in the South. Nearly 1 in 5 households with children were food-insecure in 2024.

Food deserts aren't random. They're the result of decades of disinvestment, redlining, and corporate grocery chains avoiding neighborhoods deemed unprofitable. The communities hit hardest are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. And the consequences compound. Residents in food deserts have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, driven by diets dominated by convenience stores and fast food. A bag of chips, a deli hotdog, a soda, a plastic-wrapped muffin: these are some of the staples of food desert fare. All processed and filled with low value calories.

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Organizations doing the work

Fresh Rx — food as medicine

Fresh Rx operates on a simple but powerful premise: doctors should be able to prescribe vegetables. Through its Farm to Patient program, physicians, oncologists, and case managers refer low-income patients — particularly those recovering from cancer, heart disease, or neurological conditions — into a 16-week farm share program. Participants receive free, locally grown organic produce weekly at no cost, sourced from family farms using no synthetic pesticides. After graduating, participants can continue purchasing farm shares using SNAP dollars, which are doubled through Fresh Access Bucks partnerships. Fresh Rx's Farm to Kids program also builds garden beds in food deserts in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America. It's one of over 100 produce prescription programs that have launched nationwide since 2010 — a movement grounded in research showing widespread adoption could save $39.6 billion in healthcare costs over 25 years.

The Edible Schoolyard Project

Founded by Alice Waters in 1995, the Edible Schoolyard Project brings organic gardens, kitchens, and food curriculum into public schools — now active in over 6,200 schools worldwide — teaching children where food comes from and why it matters.

GrowNYC

Runs the Fresh Food Box program, partnering with upstate farms to bring affordable produce boxes to underserved NYC neighborhoods — a model now replicated nationwide.

Growing to Give

Deploys scalable urban growing systems and community gardens in both urban and rural food deserts, pairing food production with education and collaborative partnerships.

Detroit urban farms network

Transformed 1,500+ abandoned lots into active gardens. The MSU–Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation drives research and community farming side by side.

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Urban agriculture is emerging as one of the most promising grassroots responses. Community gardens built on vacant lots and rooftops don't just grow food — they build supply where supermarkets won't set foot, create jobs, and restore the social fabric of neighborhoods that have been systematically starved of resources. Baltimore's urban agriculture programs now yield over 43,000 kilograms of fresh produce per growing season. Atlanta's Mother Clyde Memorial West End Garden has become a model for combining food access with job training and community development.

These are not fringe experiments. They are evidence that the problem is solvable — when communities are given the tools, land, and funding to solve it themselves. The question isn't whether solutions exist. It's whether we're paying enough attention to scale them.