(reposted from the State of Maine Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future: Food Insecurity Rates in Maine)
As defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), “food insecurity means that households were, at times, unable to acquire adequate food for one or more household members because they had insufficient money and other resources for food.” Because food insecurity is caused by a lack of sufficient resources, it is a symptom of a household’s broader struggle to make ends meet. That struggle results in making sacrifices on food, which is a more flexible expense compared to other basic need expenses with non-negotiable fixed costs like housing. As the oft-cited saying goes, the rent eats first (Desmond, 2017).
The USDA measures household food insecurity annually using data collected in the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), with state-level rates reported as three-year averages due to the survey sample size. The latest report found that 10.9% of households in Maine were food insecure in 2021-2023, with 40% of those food insecure households (4.4% of Maine households overall) experiencing very low food security, the most severe form of food deprivation.
Looking back at trends in Maine’s household food insecurity rates over the past 20 years there is some good news. Three-year averages between 2003 and 2023 have improved overall, fluctuating from a high of 16.2% (2012-2014) to a low of 10.9% (2021-23). The prevalence of the most severe condition of very low food security has been higher in Maine than the national average for five of the seven, 3-year averages reported across this 20-year period. However, the rate of very low food security has consistently trended down between 2012-14 and 2021-23.
The most recent Map the Meal Gap (MMG) estimates (2022 data) find that one in eight people (13.1%) in Maine live in households that struggle to afford enough food to eat. Among children in Maine, one in five, or 18.7%, live in food insecure households – the highest rate of child food insecurity in New England.
Looking at the past ten years of MMG data, the percentage of children living in food insecure households in Maine has also improved overall between 2012 and 2022. The rate of children living in food insecure households decreased by 22% between 2012 and 2022. The food insecurity rate for all individuals, overall, during that same period, decreased by 15.5% (2.5 percentage points).
However, looking at food insecurity pre-pandemic (2019) to today, the broader overall trend of improvement has reversed, and food insecurity in Maine is on the rise. While child food insecurity was on a consistent downward trend, reduced by nearly 10 percentage points between 2012 (24.1%) and 2021 (14.6%), the rate increased dramatically (+28%) in just one year, between 2021 and 2022, to a rate higher than it was pre-pandemic in 2019. This is also the case for the overall individual food insecurity rate (Figure 4 below), which shows a lower rate in 2020 and 2021 than in 2019, followed by a 2022 rate that is higher than 2019.
The most recent Map the Meal Gap (MMG) estimates (2022 data) find that one in eight people (13.1%) in Maine live in households that struggle to afford enough food to eat. Among children in Maine, one in five, or 18.7%, live in food insecure households – the highest rate of child food insecurity in New England.
Looking at the past ten years of MMG data, the percentage of children living in food insecure households in Maine has also improved overall between 2012 and 2022. The rate of children living in food insecure households decreased by 22% between 2012 and 2022. The food insecurity rate for all individuals, overall, during that same period, decreased by 15.5% (2.5 percentage points).
However, looking at food insecurity pre-pandemic (2019) to today, the broader overall trend of improvement has reversed, and food insecurity in Maine is on the rise. While child food insecurity was on a consistent downward trend, reduced by nearly 10 percentage points between 2012 (24.1%) and 2021 (14.6%), the rate increased dramatically (+28%) in just one year, between 2021 and 2022, to a rate higher than it was pre-pandemic in 2019. This is also the case for the overall individual food insecurity rate (Figure 4 below), which shows a lower rate in 2020 and 2021 than in 2019, followed by a 2022 rate that is higher than 2019.
