Minority communities saw more hunger during pandemic

Percentage of food-insecure households by race and ethnicity
in 2020 and 2019 (Investigate Midwest chart)

"The Covid-19 pandemic was expected to drive many families into hunger as jobs were lost and supply chains were interrupted. The prediction held true, but mostly for minorities," reports The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. "The nation's overall food insecurity rate remained the same between 2019 and 2020, but Black and Hispanic households fared the worst, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data released last month. Fewer white households' struggled with food insecurity last year than the year before. Experts attributed the steady rate to government programs, such as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program (P-EBT), intended to fight hunger. However, some of these programs are slated to end next year, which has advocates worried about what could happen to families struggling to access food."

Minority households likely fared worse because of existing disparities at the beginning of the pandemic, such as a lower median income and higher poverty rate than other groups. Other groups more likely to suffer from food insecurity include seniors, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, and families with children, the Midwest Center reports.

Hunger is also disproportionately rural, previous data show. And though federal aid helped overall rural hunger go down in 2020, more children went hungry, more people used food banks, and overall food insecurity rose in nine states.