food insecure

adjective

variants: or less commonly food-insecure

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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Examples of food insecure in a Sentence

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For people who are food insecure and unemployed, being hungry is one in a long list of barriers to finding employment. — Guest Columnist/cleveland.com, cleveland.com, "The 'typical' food stamps recipient could be your neighbor, friend or relative: Kate Warren (Opinion)," 8 Apr. 2018 Retailers spend more than $18 billion each year on wasted food, while 42 million Americans are food insecure. said Chris Cochran, executive director of ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste. — WSJ, "Sonny Perdue: U.S. Won’t Back Down on Milk Demand From Canada," 27 Sep. 2018 Throughout America, 12 percent are food insecure — lacking enough food in a year to live healthy. — Alfred Lubrano, Philly.com, "Hunger haunts Philly. These are the voices of its pain," 21 May 2018 Both Cuyahoga and Franklin Counties have large numbers of residents who are considered food insecure, according to academic and government research. — cleveland.com, "The 15 Ohio counties with the most (and 15 counties with the least) grocery stores per 1,000 people," 29 Mar. 2018 In Georgia, 14 percent of households are food insecure or struggle to afford a nutritionally adequate diet, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. — Nedra Rhone, ajc, "Study: Minority of SNAP recipients spend benefits early in the month," 10 July 2018 Broward County has the highest percentage (14.3%) of food insecure individuals. — Marvin Glassman, Jewish Journal, "Jewish Federation, Feeding South Florida partner to help needy," 5 July 2018 To date the event has raised about $10 million to fight hunger in Greater Houston with more than 30 million meals for the food insecure. — Greg Morago, Houston Chronicle, "Houston Restaurant Weeks set for Aug. 1 to Sept. 3," 7 June 2018 United Nations officials in Cameroon say that 57 percent of rural people live in poverty and 10 percent are food insecure. — Elias Ntungwe Ngalame, The Christian Science Monitor, "Drought-hit Cameroon finds hope in seed farms," 14 Mar. 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.