Projects & Initatives

America’s Health Rankings reports: “Food insecurity is a social and economic condition where access to food is limited or uncertain. It differs from hunger in that hunger is a physiological feeling. Food insecurity is a complex problem and does not exist in isolation for low-income families. Many of the same families also struggle with issues like affordable housing, medical costs, and low wages. The pandemic also heightened food insecurity.

Food insecurity has broad effects on health due to the mental and physical stress that it places on the body. Children are particularly susceptible to the negative impacts of food insecurity because their brains and bodies are still developing. Among children, food insecurity is associated with anemia; asthma; depression and anxiety; cognitive and behavioral problems; and higher risk of being hospitalized.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that food insecure adults had annual health care expenditures $1,834 higher than food secure adults, for a cumulative median cost of $687 million per state.

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https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/health-of-women-and-children/measure/food_insecurity_household/state/HI

Food insecurity does not exist in isolation, as low-income families are affected by multiple, overlapping issues like lack of affordable housing, social isolation, economic/ social disadvantage resulting from structural racism, chronic or acute health problems, high medical costs, and low wages. Taken together, these issues are important social determinants of health, defined as the “conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” Effective responses to food insecurity must address the overlapping challenges posed by the social determinants of health.