Last year, 42.1 million Americans relied on food stamps—what we call SNAP. That’s a staggering number, a painful reminder of how many people, across all walks of life, struggle to put food on the table. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to help, but it’s only a patch on a much bigger wound.
A quarter of American adults, roughly 25%, can’t feed themselves adequately. Let that sink in. These aren’t people living in another world—they’re your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends. According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, nearly 28 million adults reported going without enough to eat at some point in the year. Imagine that: people who sometimes, often, or always, don’t have enough. It’s a dire reality for millions, one that’s been accepted as normal far too long.
Why? Why does this happen in a nation overflowing with wealth and resources? It’s clear: systemic issues drive this food insecurity. The poorest of the poor, single-parent households, and rural communities face the highest rates of hunger. Families are being left behind, and government programs are failing to fill the gap. The policies designed to combat hunger are too slow, too weak, and too fragmented.
In 2023, SNAP cost the government a whopping $112.8 billion, with the average monthly benefit per person at just $211.93. That’s not nearly enough when you consider the price of groceries, especially when families are already struggling to make ends meet. But it’s not just the lack of resources—it’s the broken system that keeps millions trapped in poverty, too exhausted from the daily grind to climb out.
Meanwhile, animals like rats and worms, with instincts for survival, don’t face the same struggle. They find food. They protect their young. And yet, here we are, in a country with so much potential, where a quarter of our adults can’t meet their basic needs.
Sources:
https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=109313