food insecure

adjective

variants or less commonly food-insecure

ˈfüd-ˌin-si-ˈkyu̇r 

: 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 GenYouth, one in five children live in food insecure homes and 30 million children rely on school meals. —Amanda Hari, CBS News, 8 Feb. 2026

From 2022 to 2023 alone, the number of food insecure seniors increased by nearly 450,000 people in the state. —Alison Saldanha, Dallas Morning News, 29 Jan. 2026

Nearly 11% of Iowa households were food insecure from 2022 to 2024 — a 57% increase from the 7% reported over the 2019-2021 period, the report said. —F. Amanda Tugade, Des Moines Register, 12 Jan. 2026

According to Foodshare, 18% of the people in Vernon were food insecure as of 2025. —Kitan Arole, Hartford Courant, 11 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1977, in the meaning defined above