food insecure

adjective

variants or less commonly food-insecure

: unable to consistently access or afford adequate food

According to data released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17 percent of Americans—more than 50 million people—live in households that are "food insecure," a term that means a family sometimes runs out of money to buy food, or it sometimes runs out of food before it can get more money.—

Lisa Miller

A food-insecure household may be faced with the difficult choice of paying for basic necessities, such as health care and housing, or buying nutritionally adequate foods.—

Elyse Miller

Examples of food insecure in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web According to recent data, nearly 20% of New Yorkers are currently living in poverty and are food insecure; wages are down; rents in NYC are up 965% since 1968; and the city’s housing supply and vacancy rate is at one of the lowest in history, at 1.4%: yet the RGB is again calling for an increase. —

David R. Jones, New York Daily News, 28 May 2024 In that time frame, the number of people considered food insecure in the state rose by 90,000 to 470,000. —

Erica E. Phillips, Hartford Courant, 16 May 2024 According to the website, the organization has served over 65,000 meals to the food insecure throughout Central Kentucky since its opening in March 2019. —

Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 8 Mar. 2024 Although the Middle East is not as food insecure as sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 50 million people in the region face chronic undernourishment. —

Marwa Daoudy, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022 See all Example Sentences for food insecure

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'food insecure.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.