food insecure

adjective

variants: or less commonly food-insecure

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of 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

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food insecurity

noun

Recent Examples of food insecure from the Web

Children who are food insecure are twice as likely to be in poor health, studies show, and face the potential stunting of their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.

— alfred lubrano, Philly.com, "Hunger in Philly - 'It's a pain in my belly'," 18 May 2018
Research shows that food insecure people in the U.S. incur an extra $1,800 in medical costs every year, accounting for $77.5 billion in additional health care expenditures.

— anthony v. coletta, md, mba, Philly.com, "To improve Philly's healthcare system, first focus on poverty," 3 May 2018
Over three million people in Greater Kasaï are estimated to be severely food insecure.

— heloise, Houston Chronicle, "Don’t throw it away," 13 May 2018
Of the counties the campaign serves, one in five children are food insecure.

— nikki delamotte, cleveland.com, "Market at the Food Bank raises $334K to support hunger relief," 30 Apr. 2018
The Food Research & Action Center states that those who are food insecure often use harmful coping strategies.

— anthony v. coletta, md, mba, Philly.com, "To improve Philly's healthcare system, first focus on poverty," 3 May 2018
After moving to Somerville, MA six years ago for an urban retirement, Sandy continued to give of herself as a volunteer tutor in a neighborhood school and to cook for the 'food insecure' with Community Cooks.

— courant.com, "Sandra B. Morrow," 2 May 2018
Nearly as many of those who are food insecure don't have secure housing.

— mará rose williams, kansascity, "Think college students are privileged? Nearly a third are hungry and homeless | The Kansas City Star," 5 Apr. 2018
The same question about lack of grocery stores in NoDa could be asked of other areas throughout the city that are considered food insecure, where there are few or no walkable grocery stores.

— katherine peralta, charlotteobserver, "Other parts of Charlotte have plenty of grocery stores. Why not NoDa? | Charlotte Observer," 12 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'food insecure.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.