Since 2020, the Capital Area Food Bank has produced an annual Hunger Report detailing the food-insecurity crisis in our region.
These data-driven reports have illustrated the widespread hunger challenges that existed before the pandemic began, and the staggering level of food insecurity that remains amid the slow, uneven economic recovery.
The food bank’s latest report, published in June 2022, revealed a sobering statistic: one-third of the Washington region – more than 1.2 million people – didn’t always know where their next meal would come from at some point during 2021.
That finding and others in the report were the result of a first-of-its-kind general population survey about food insecurity and inequity across the region, conducted in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, one of the most trusted independent social research organizations in the country.
These reports have been intended to help inform and accelerate work being done to advance food security and increase equity in the greater Washington area.
In addition to describing the scope of the hunger challenges across our region, each includes recommendations for actions that every sector can take to address widening socioeconomic divides and create a region in which more people can thrive.
Explore our Hunger Reports
Hunger Report 2020
The food first bank’s first Hunger Report in 2020 sounded the alarm on a growing hunger crisis in our region. It provided a previously unavailable holistic look at food insecurity in the Washington region.