More kids in OC don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Experts worry it's getting worse

A recent report from Feeding America shows food insecurity increased year over year between 2022 and 2024. Advocates say today’s reality could be much worse.

The report published last week showed that about 1 in 6 kids in Orange County experienced food insecurity in 2024 — that’s up 27% from the year before.

For some advocates, the report published last week was not surprising.

“With the SNAP benefits being reduced and the persistent inflation, particularly food inflation and energy inflation, and the lack of wages keeping up, something's got to give,” LaVal Brewer, president and CEO at South County Outreach, said.

Experts say the snapshot of food insecurity in Orange County could tell us more about today’s needs.

Who else did the report capture? 

Overall, 1 in 8 O.C. residents were food insecure in 2024 — up 6% from the year before.

The problem also disproportionately affected communities of color. According to the report, 29% of Black residents and 18% of Latinos in Orange County experienced food insecurity.

Nearly half of people experiencing food insecurity have incomes too high to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

What does it mean to be food insecure? 

Food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal will come from. A lot of factors can lead to this, like low or inconsistent income, access to nutritious foods and the cost of living.

Claudia Bonilla Keller, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, told LAist some people might not doubt that they’ll have access to food, but they might not know what they’re having for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What does this report tell us about today? 

The findings from this report were recorded in 2024, before the federal government made changes to food programs, like SNAP. Experts say food insecurity today is likely much worse and worsening.

“Since the sunsetting of the COVID-era benefits, the onset of inflation and the high price of fuel, and now changes to the safety net, what we've seen is a constant downward,” Keller said.

The report is compiled annually using data from national survey responses, local unemployment rates, and median incomes across all U.S. counties.

What to know about hunger 

Keller said food insecurity ebbs and flows throughout the year, but spikes in the summer.

“But for families with children, we know that it spikes in the summer, also at the end of the year, for the long holiday breaks when students lose access to federally reimbursed meals,” Keller said. “Those meals can be two, even three, that families depend on to feed their kids.”

Bill Bracken is the founder and executive director of Bracken’s Kitchen — a nonprofit that specializes in food rescue, culinary training and feeding the community.

In the summer, he said, children suffer the most, and the same can be said for some college students.

“We just happened to walk past a student who saw our logo on our uniforms and stopped and thanked us so much because he recognized the logo from the meals he gets from the (UCI) Food Hub,” Bracken said. “He's so grateful and just happy that we're able to provide something that he can pop in the microwave and eat right away.”

Nevertheless, like hunger, food waste is also at an all-time high.

“That's the sad part,” Bracken told LAist. “With all the need, we're still wasting more food than ever before. We're going to rescue more food this year than we ever have, and we'll produce more meals than we ever have.”

When information is collected again, Brewer said, the numbers will be significantly worse, especially for those who no longer qualify for food benefits.

“Those people who were not spending money on food because they were receiving a benefit from the federal government, from our tax dollars, no longer have that support,” Brewer said. “It's not like those people just suddenly earned more money to be able to cover their food costs.”

Rent, mortgage, car notes, and child care are non-negotiables, Brewer added, “so you're going to be food insecure because that's something you can actually manage and control.”