That growing demand could soon collide with a major funding drop. In the Inland Empire — where food insecurity is already widespread — leaders warn that a key state program helping stock pantry shelves may be scaled back dramatically this summer.

    The program, known as CalFood, provides funding to food banks so they can purchase and distribute fresh, locally grown food. According to the California Association of Food Banks, hundreds of local pantries could see a sharp decline in available food if the program is reduced as proposed.

    “It’s a lifeline for farmers, food banks and families,” said Joanna Solor, interim CEO of Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino, speaking during a recent distribution event at a Riverside church. “It allows us to get food into the community and back into the hands of families who need it.”

    Under the state’s May budget revision, CalFood funding could be cut by roughly 90%, returning it to its longstanding $8 million baseline. Food bank leaders say that reduction would come at the worst possible time, as demand continues to rise.

    Advocates are pushing state officials to increase funding instead — calling for more than $100 million in the 2026–27 budget — arguing it is essential to prevent what they describe as a “hunger cliff.”

    State officials note that CalFood has historically operated at the $8 million level. H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said the program also received a one-time $72 million boost this year, partly tied to federal funding disruptions. He added that a significant portion of that money — about $74.5 million as of January — remains unspent and available to food banks.

    Even so, local providers say the loss of ongoing funding would be significant. Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino, the region’s largest food bank, could see its CalFood allocation drop from $2.3 million to about $262,000 annually. According to Solor, that funding currently makes up as much as a quarter of the organization’s food supply.

    Those dollars are especially important for purchasing items that are rarely donated — including fresh produce, dairy, meat, and low-sodium foods.

    Solor estimates the proposed cuts could impact roughly 950,000 families across the Inland Empire. She said the effects would likely be visible almost immediately.

    “When federal benefits change or get reduced, more people turn to food banks,” she said. “We’re going to see higher demand, fewer healthy options, and shelves that don’t stay full for long.”

    The pressure comes on top of recent federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Last summer’s legislation reduced benefits for some households, and additional changes are still rolling out.

    In California, the program is administered as CalFresh. State officials say tens of thousands of residents — including certain humanitarian migrants such as refugees and asylum seekers — are expected to lose eligibility beginning in April.

    At the same time, a federally supported nutrition education program tied to SNAP is scheduled to end by June 30, according to public health officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    While food banks do not receive SNAP funding directly, they often absorb the fallout when benefits are reduced. That’s why organizations like Feeding America are asking lawmakers to approve $110 million in total support — including $60 million in ongoing funding and a $50 million one-time allocation to offset recent federal cuts.

    “Food banks are going to be the safety net for families losing those benefits,” said Rachel Bonilla, a spokesperson for Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino. “Without additional support, we simply won’t be able to meet the need.”

    Still, some advocates believe even that request may fall short. Stacia Hill Levenfeld, CEO of the California Association of Food Banks, said recent budget decisions and federal policy changes are worsening food insecurity across the state.

    Recent data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey shows about 22% of California households struggle with food insecurity. The rate is even higher among certain groups — including 43% of Black households and 31% of Latino households — and affects roughly one in four households with children. In the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region, about 30% of families with children reported food insecurity.

    State estimates show nearly 2.3 million people across Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties rely on CalFresh benefits, including more than 347,000 in Riverside County alone.

    If CalFood funding is reduced, officials say more than half of Feeding America’s partner pantries — over 250 organizations across the region — could see a noticeable drop in available food.

    Among them is the Lighthouse of Hope Foundation, a Riverside-based nonprofit that organizes weekly food distributions. At a recent event held March 18 at the Christian Life Center, hundreds of families lined up around the block for groceries ranging from fresh produce to dry goods.

    Founder Donna Sautia said her organization has already distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food this year with help from Feeding America.

    “This program has been a blessing for so many families,” Sautia said. “People are struggling right now — benefits are being cut, costs are rising — and hunger doesn’t take a break.”

    Without that support, she said, many community groups would struggle to continue operating at the same level.

    “If we run out, I’ll do everything I can to fill the gap myself,” she said. “But the need is growing faster than what any one group can handle.”

    Sautia added that economic pressures — from rising gas prices to reduced benefits — are hitting families across the region. In some cases, fear tied to immigration enforcement is also keeping people from accessing resources.

    “It’s affecting everyone in different ways,” she said. “We’re just trying to make sure no one gets left behind.”

    For Riverside resident Veronica Garcia, food assistance programs have become essential. She recently attended a pantry distribution with her daughter and a neighbor after seeing the event advertised on social media.

    “Everything is so expensive right now,” Garcia said. “This helps us breathe a little. We want to give our families healthy meals, but it’s not always possible without help.”

    She added that continued funding for food programs is critical.

    “We’re really grateful these places exist,” she said. “They make a difference.”

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That’s how volunteer Heather Prieto sums it up. After getting involved with Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino through her church group, Prieto began volunteering with her family when her children were 5 and 8 years old. Years later, after her youngsters moved on to junior high and high school, she’s still in.

So it should come as no surprise that a large industrial warehouse off Jefferson Street in Riverside, the center of FARSB operations, is a place where the community comes together.

It’s not just one individual hero but many, everyday folk helping to combat hunger in children, seniors and anyone in need, whether they live on the other side of the county or next door.

On a recent Thursday morning, the collection and distribution center was all motion and activity.

Just inside the farthest door of the food bank, volunteers pushed carts between large cardboard boxes filled with an assortment of food donations. They are college students, retirees, healthcare workers, representing the spectrum of age, ethnicity and careers — but they share a commitment to do something meaningful: help others.

Kellie Albright of Moreno Valley regularly drives a half-hour, one-way, to do her part. As a student at UCLA, Albright was doing clinical volunteer work and she wanted to also do something different.

She decided to check out local food banks and visited FARSB, which she found to be well organized and friendly. She liked the people, and she confesses she likes sorting. “It’s actually kind of fun, like a game,” she says as she moves between large 4-foot by 4-foot cardboard boxes filled with random foodstuffs, pulling items like kids’ snacks onto her cart.

“And it’s rewarding,” she adds, “knowing that what I did helped people.”

Large volume FARSB donors are grocery and food stores, and many of the donations that flow in are hodge-podge collections of food items that are close to their “best by” dates, but still safe for consumption. Volunteers inspect and collect like items — snacks with snacks, baking ingredients with baking ingredients, canned goods which are alike — so they can be packaged for shipment to or pick-up by food pantries in and around the Inland Empire.

And the need is large.

In the Inland Empire, the food bank’s outreach touches the lives of about 300,000 people each month. About 530,000 in the area are considered food-insecure, meaning they aren’t getting all three meals a day, says Rachel Bonilla, an FARSB communications and government affairs specialist.

Jeff Girod, FARSB board member and assistant dean at UC Riverside, puts it in even simpler terms: in the Riverside/San Bernardino County area, one in eight people face hunger.

“That statistic is even more dire for children, where one in six are food insecure,” he said. “Food insecurity is a critical issue facing too many of us.”

In terms of volume, over the course of a year, FARSB collects and ships some 36 million pounds of food, approximately 30 million meals along with assorted other items like diapers, plush toys and various sundries. (Every meal is 1.2 pounds of food.)

Routinely, groups of 15 volunteers work morning and afternoon shifts Monday through Friday; some are regulars, others come just once for the experience.

Over the course of a year, between these efforts and others, the greater community contributes more than 25,000 volunteer hours — a lot of people, joining in to lend a hand. They come as individuals, small groups and family members and they learn what to do with the help of leads, senior volunteers who operate equipment and help direct work.

While it all sounds complicated, it’s a systemically efficient operation, where people power, combined with organized giving, makes everything go.

Walking around the warehouse, one finds a space that looks a lot like a Costco or Lowe’s in terms of storage and organization, but of course it’s all for food; there are even large walk-in spaces for refrigeration of perishable and frozen food.

And it’s not just small individual items that are on hand; pallets of goods are donated by major retailers including WalMart, Target, CVS, Costco, Ralphs, Kroger and Stater Bros.

How is there so much? It can be attributed at least partly to California law which requires that surplus edible food which might otherwise be discarded be donated to food banks. The surplus may result from issues with best by dates, broken or incorrectly wrapped pallets, or deliveries rejected because of consignment issues.

The law applies to supermarkets, grocery stores, food distributors, wholesale food vendors and food service providers as well as large operations which have services that provide food or meals like event venues, hotels and some health and educational facilities.

Add in the public and commercial considerations and misconceptions on food safety and labeling, which guide the way many of us shop.

According to the U.S.D.A. Food Safety and Inspection service, “best by” dates should not be confused with expiration dates.

A “best by” date indicates when a product is at its peak quality and flavor according to manufacturers; a “sell by” date tells stores how long a product should be displayed for sale or inventory; and the “use by” date indicates the last date to use a product for peak quality.

With the exception of infant formulas, the U.S.D.A. reports that, if stored properly, products can still be safe after labeled dates, though consumers are advised to look for possible spoilage, evidenced by odor, color or texture. Infant formula should not be purchased or used after its “use by” date.

So with retailers choosing to donate rather than deal with “best by” labeling issues, and the nudge from California law, food bank operations have a donation base that just needs its people power. Locally, that’s the volunteers, leads and the staff team at FARSB.

After moving to Riverside during the pandemic, Luis Molina was looking for a job — but not just any job; he wanted something meaningful and rewarding. As the volunteer services supervisor at FARSB, he found what he was looking for — a way to help others contribute. He’s been fulfilling that role for four years now.

Molina says he really enjoys the work; mostly it’s responding to phone calls and inquiries from individuals and corporate groups. But people often stop him on the street and ask how they can help, he adds.

The best way to participate, he says, is to go online at feedingamericaie.org and book a shift doing something that appeals to you.

The options include working at the food bank, but also at monthly distributions at community centers or senior centers, making food deliveries to homebound persons, and even seasonal gleaning (that’s picking leftover crops or produce, such as oranges from groves or backyards).

Once volunteers book a shift, Molina gives them a tour of the warehouse and explains operations and gets them set up with a lead volunteer to help guide them through their efforts.

After food is sorted and prepped for pickup or delivery, that’s where the last community link comes into play: the community partner organizations. These client-facing organizations run food pantries, soup kitchens and various locations where the food is actually distributed; they might be churches, synagogues or community centers.

“A perfect example is our partner at Lighthouse of Hope,” says Bonilla, which is a faith-based organization that offers a pantry or food distribution site once a week at their location. The church has services for their congregation on Sundays, but they have volunteers and members of the church at the pantry distributions where they give out the food.”

It’s no surprise that it’s about community and, often, faith, like in Prieto’s case.

“… We did it together as a family and amongst our church family so we left feeling good. I don’t think any of us ever forgot that feeling,” she said. “We have always taught our kids if you can be anything, be kind. We aren’t well off, but we have enough and when someone is in need we want to give.”

TO LEARN MOREFor more information about Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino — including volunteering, food bank operations and outreach — visit feedingamericaie.org.

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The nearest grocery store is about 20 miles away in neighboring Kern County, making fresh food nearly unreachable for residents without transportation. Instead, fresh fruits and vegetables are available only through monthly food distributions organized by Inland Empire Health Plan. This monthly distribution in Trona is part of IEHP’s initiative to combat food insecurity throughout the region. With nearly two dozen distributions across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, IEHP aims to ensure nutritious food reaches the areas with the highest need.

“Wherever I go in the Inland Empire, food access is often the top issue facing communities,” said Cesar Armendariz, senior director of Community Health at IEHP. “The need grew during the pandemic and rising grocery prices have made healthy food unaffordable for many working residents.”

Trona is not alone; food insecurity affects both rural and urban communities across the Inland Empire. San Bernardino County data indicates that nearly 11% of residents in the Riverside-San Bernardino metro area experience food insecurity — defined as not having access to enough food for a healthy lifestyle. Alarmingly, one in six children in San Bernardino County faces hunger, while one in seven in Riverside County.

Food insecurity stems not only from limited financial resources and food affordRiverside ability but also from limited access to healthy options, particularly in designated food deserts. These areas, often found in low-income neighborhoods, have a high concentration of liquor stores, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants that primarily offer ultra-processed foods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a region where at least 33% of residents live more than one mile from a grocery store in urban areas or more than 10 miles in rural settings.

Research makes clear the connection between food insecurity and poor health outcomes. Individuals deprived of healthy, nutrient-rich options face heightened risks of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. For children, inadequate access to nutritious foods can hamper educational performance and success, extending the impact of food deserts beyond individual physical health to overall community well-being.

Many working families are often forced to make difficult choices between essentials like food, housing and health care, perpetuating health disparities in the region. Amid these challenges, community-based organizations work to improve food access. Alongside IEHP, local nonprofits are dedicated to feeding families and also to providing resources and tools to establish healthier eating habits.

FIND Food Bank, part of the Feeding America network, distributes more than 20 million pounds of food each year through more than a hundred local food pantries and mobile markets throughout the Coachella Valley.

“FIND Food Bank is addressing food insecurity across the Coachella Valley with targeted, community-driven solutions that meet people where they are,” said Lorena Marroquin, vice president of Community Impact at FIND Food Bank. “We serve over 125,000 people monthly across a vast 6,000-square-mile region, including many rural and remote communities where traditional food access is limited.”

Their neighboring sister food bank, Feeding America Riverside and San Bernardino, addresses the broad food needs in the two counties. Operating under five focus pillars, Feeding America Riverside and San Bernardino hosts 12 hunger relief programs that cater to various demographics, including veterans, seniors and school-aged children.

Both organizations, however, along with many others in the social services sector, are concerned about the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program included in the signed budget reconciliation bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” SNAP, once referred to as food stamps, is critical to California’s CalFresh program, which helps more than 2.6 million households statewide.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that this legislation could reduce federal SNAP funding by $186 billion by 2034 — around 20% — the largest cut in the program’s history. The reductions stem from work requirements and shifting costs from the federal government to states, along with the elimination of SNAP-ED, which offers free health education to SNAP participants.

For many low-income working families, SNAP is their first line of defense against hunger. When SNAP benefits are reduced, people turn to food banks, said Feeding America Riverside and San Bernardino CEO Carolyn Fajardo, who is concerned about the shift in federal policy and the effects it will have in the region.

“These programs are lifelines for millions of individuals and families. Any reductions would make it significantly harder for people to access the support they need,” Fajardo said. “As a result, food banks like ours will face even greater demand, all while operating with fewer resources.”

As we work to build a strong, healthy future for the Inland Empire region, ensuring all residents have access to affordable, nutritious food is essential. Whether in Trona, San Bernardino, Indio, or Moreno Valley, food is a central ingredient for healthy families and healthy communities.

If you’re interested in finding ways to support those facing food insecurity, we encourage you to visit feedingamericaie.org or findfoodbank.org.

IEHP Foundation provides resources and support to strengthen the local leaders and nonprofit organizations that make Inland Empire families healthier. Because when everyone in the Inland Empire lives a full and vibrant life, our region thrives. Learn more about IEHP Foundation at iehpfoundation.org

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The number of monthly clients has risen to 310,000, more than double the number of people the food bank served before the pandemic, spokesperson Kevin Buffalino said. 

So it was a blow this month, he said, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture halted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for food banks. Caught up in the freeze were 11 truckloads of food – 400,000 pounds – that the Sacramento food bank was expecting over the next few months. 

A total of 330 truckloads bound for food banks across the state has been suspended, according to the California Association of Food Banks, with no indication of when or if they’ll be delivered. The biggest potential hit is to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, where 90 expected truckloads are in limbo. 

The orders were promised during the Biden administration, which in December announced a bonus round of food orders on top of deliveries the USDA normally makes to food banks. 

The freeze of the bonus orders came as food banks brace for other cuts — both from a new Trump administration intent on reducing federal spending and from California’s own state budget deficit after several flush budget years in the pandemic. In Washington, Congress is also considering cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which sends about $1 billion a month to low-income Californians to buy groceries. 

But food programs are just one of many competing priorities the Democratic-dominated state Legislature will have to balance as California starts to get a picture of how federal cuts may affect the state and its $322 billion budget. California receives more than $314 billion in federal funds for food benefits, health coverage and other social services each year, while federal grants to nonprofits and private contracts total more than $81 billion.

Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer said it’s still too early to determine whether California can afford to make up the federal spending being cut.

Already, the food banks association is urging lawmakers not to reduce the state food assistance dollars, but they’ll be jockeying for attention amid a myriad of real and potential federal cuts in everything from higher education to rural road repairs, refugee resettlement services and the massive low-income health program Medicaid.

“These are Sophie’s choices,” said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat who chairs a budget subcommittee that’s evaluating potential federal funding shortfalls. “Every single thing that we could talk about has a federal funding connection that’s in jeopardy and the state just doesn’t have the money to backfill it.”

The demand for food has not slowed

When a persistent foot condition forced Antoinette Turner to retire early last fall from her longtime job on a hospital graveyard shift, she looked for ways to save. 

The 61-year-old was “rationing” her savings and accepting help from her son. For the first time in her life, she started going to the Sacramento food bank. 

On Tuesday morning in a Sacramento church parking lot, she made her way down an assembly line of grocery pallets as volunteers offered canned soup, peanut butter, beans, rice and frozen turkey breasts. Hundreds of people were expected, including retirees, disabled veterans and immigrant families from Russia, Ukraine and Afghanistan who settled in the diverse Sacramento suburbs. 

“It’d be sad,” if the organization had to cut back, Turner said. “It makes my life easier.”

A confluence of cuts could force the food bank to do just that, Buffalino said.

Earlier in March, the USDA terminated a Biden-era grant program that gave food banks and tribal governments money to purchase food from local farmers. 

California food banks have gotten more than $80 million through the program since 2022, with some grants expected to last through mid-2026. They were expecting another $47 million in the program’s next round, before that was cut on March 7, said state Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel. 

It was unclear why the grant was canceled and the orders halted. USDA officials did not respond to queries sent to the agency’s press email seeking comment. Under Trump, federal agencies have moved to halt or cut grants in a quest to purge waste and spending on programs that don’t meet the administration’s ideological tests.

California, too, is slated to reduce food banks’ funding. For several years when the state had a record surplus, it devoted millions of additional dollars to a state program called CalFood that allows food banks to purchase from local farmers or food producers such as tortillerias. 

Those boosts gave food banks about $60 million a year through CalFood over the past three years; in the budget Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed for the fiscal year that starts in July, that funding would revert to $8 million. 

California food banks depend on aid

The federal and state food-purchasing funds have made up the majority of the $3.5 million the Sacramento food bank spends to buy food annually, Buffalino said. 

Purchased food makes up 40% of the groceries the food bank gives away; the rest is delivered by the USDA or recovered from supermarkets that can no longer sell it. 

With sharp reductions in both purchasing funds, Buffalino said the Sacramento food bank will either have to rely more heavily on private donations or cut back on how much it gives each recipient. 

Though demand at the food bank receded slightly as jobs started to recover from the pandemic, clients quickly came back because of inflation, Buffalino said. Food prices last year were nearly 24% higher than in 2020.

“It’s been a steady increase (in clients) over the past five years,” he said. 

Farmers, too, will be affected by the grants’ cancellation. 

The federal food-purchasing funds have allowed small farmers to buy new equipment, invest in greenhouses and expand their footprints to serve bulk buyers, said Megan Kenney of the North Coast Growers Association in Humboldt County. 

Kenney coordinates food orders between two regional food banks and about 40 farmers, all of whom plant fewer than 100 acres each. Over the winter, she and the farmers planned what they would plant based on food bank demand, expecting federal funds to back the purchases. 

“They were encouraged to do these sorts of things,” Kenney said. “If they have to make a larger investment into seeds or labor without getting to see a return, they could really see that impact.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — An estimated 17 million households reported problems finding enough food in 2022 — a sharp jump from 2021 when boosted government aid helped ease the pandemic-induced economic shutdown.

A new Department of Agriculture report, released Wednesday, paints a sobering picture of post-pandemic hardship with “statistically significant” increases in food insecurity across multiple categories. Using a representative survey sample of roughly 32,000 American households the report said 12.8% (17 million households) reported occasional problems affording enough food — up from 10.2% (13.5 million households) in 2021 and 10.5% (13.8 million households) in 2020. This is up from 10.2% (13.5 million households) in 2021 and 10.5% (13.8 million households) in 2020.

Analysts and food security professionals point to the dual impact last year of high inflation and the gradual expiration of multiple pandemic-era government assistance measures.

“This underscores how the unwinding of the pandemic interventions and the rising costs of food has taken hold,” said Geri Henchy, director of nutrition policy for the Food Research and Action Center. “It’s like a horrible storm for families.”

The number of households reporting more serious forms of economic hardship also increased. Wednesday’s report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service also tracks families with “very low food security” — a condition it defines as families having to ration food consumption and where “normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because of limited resources.”

Households experiencing this level of hardship in 2022 rose to 5.1% (6.8 million households), up from 3.8% (5.1 million households) in 2021 and 3.9% (5.1 million households) in 2020.

Increased benefits and more relaxed enrollment rules for SNAP — the foundational government assistance program commonly known as food stamps — didn’t end until early this year. But a host of other federal and state-level pandemic aid initiatives wound down last year. One key national change that Henchy highlighted was the end of universal free school lunches for all students, a policy that ended over the summer of 2022.

“These were healthy, nutritious meals because the schools had good standards,” she said. “It was great for the kids. It was stigma-free, and it was huge for people’s budgets.”

These findings broadly mirror real-time anecdotes from late last year, when multiple food banks and charitable groups reported being surprised by the higher-than-expected levels of need entering the 2022 holiday season. In several cases last year, food banks and charities made educated estimates of how much food they would need to distribute, only to find that those predictions were far too low.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the survey results “unacceptable” and said the rising level of need “should be a wake-up call to those wanting to further roll back our anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs.”

Vilsack highlighted the increased fruit and vegetable benefits for recipients of WIC — an aid program that specifically targets mothers and young children. The increased WIC benefits package is one of the few pandemic policies that’s continuing, although there have been proposals in Congress to bring those benefits down to pre-pandemic levels.

“The experience of the pandemic showed us that when government invests in meaningful support for families, we can make a positive impact on food security, even during challenging economic times,” Vilsack said in a statement Wednesday. “No child should go hungry in America. The report is a stark reminder of the consequences of shrinking our proven safety net.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged world finance leaders Tuesday to “get concrete” as they look for ways to combat a looming crisis over food insecurity around the globe that Russia’s war in Ukraine has made even worse.

“This threat touches the most vulnerable people the hardest — families that are already spending disproportionate amounts of their income on food,” Yellen told fellow finance leaders during a food security meeting convened with members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. “Moreover, the interconnectedness of the global food system means that people on every continent are impacted.”

Among the proposed solutions under discussion: reducing export restrictions, relieving price controls across countries and subsidizing small farmers globally. Failure to feed the world’s population risks not only starvation, but also social unrest and cross-border political upheaval.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Treasury Department issued a carve-out to the sanctions that have already been imposed to allow agricultural transactions and trade related to humanitarian aid and access to communications.

Russia and Ukraine produce a third of the world’s wheat supply and the loss of commodities due to the war has resulted in soaring food prices and uncertainty about the future of food security globally, especially in impoverished countries.

The costs of fertilizer and natural gas have exploded and leaders expressed concern that countries could turn inward and restrict trade to protect their populations, indirectly hurting more vulnerable countries that face even worse food problems.

“We know that we must avoid export restrictions that could further increase prices,” Yellen said. “We must quickly support the most vulnerable populations with social safety nets and targeted support for smallholder farmers so they can continue to produce.”

David Malpass, president of the World Bank, said his organization will provide $17 billion per year to strengthen food security. “We think food insecurity is rising fastest in middle-income countries and responding appropriately is mission critical,” he said. The organization is also developing a 15-month crisis response package of $170 billion, that will address the pandemic, refugee resettlement and other issues alongside food supply.

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index has made its biggest jump since its inception in 1990, reflecting an all-time high in the cost of vegetable oils, cereals and meat, according to the organization.

A late March report from the organization stated that the global number of undernourished people could increase by 8 million to 13 million people into 2023, “with the most pronounced increases taking place in Asia-Pacific, followed by sub-Saharan Africa, and the Near East and North Africa. If the war lasts, impacts will go well beyond 2022/23.”

Gilbert Houngbo, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said international banks should look not just at food production but also “providing food on the table, it’s a matter of ensuring minimum social protection for the most vulnerable communities.”

“Those small-scale producers should have their fair share in what they produce,” he said.

Yellen said international financial institutions need to work with affected countries to develop solutions.

“They can help mitigate the global fertilizer shortage and smooth supply chain disruptions for food and critical supplies,” she said, adding that they also can offer “targeted assistance and strengthen social safety nets to protect vulnerable people in the short term and build their resilience over the longer term.”

Anna Nagurney, a crisis management specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said Tuesday’s meeting of global leaders was significant and “speaks to the growing fear and the increasing understanding that the world may be on the verge of a hunger catastrophe.”

Nagurney predicted that countries that have not yet provided clear support for Ukraine — such as China and India — will come to realize that the food insecurity from a prolonged war in Ukraine will affect their own national stability and the welfare of their citizens.

“This may help to further isolate Russia both morally and economically,” she said.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said Monday that the international coalition of countries imposing sanctions on Russia and its allies takes the food security threat seriously.

“One of the things we have to do is take practical steps to demonstrate that this system is helping the people who need it the most,” he said, which includes a “focus on those countries that are struggling to pay for things like bread for their people in light of the increase in commodities prices.”

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Hispanic/Latino youths with limited access to nutritionally adequate food—especially those whose parents were foreign-born—had worse cardiometabolic profiles than their “food secure” counterparts, according to a study published in Pediatrics. Until now, little was known about the role of food insecurity on youths’ physical health. 

Given the increase in food insecurity that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for Hispanic/Latino immigrant families, these findings may also foreshadow concerning trends for the health and well-being of Hispanic/Latino youth, noted the researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, University of Southern California, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, San Diego State University, and Einstein College of Medicine.

Previous studies have shown that food insecurity in adults was associated with cardiometabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Food insecurity affects about 14 percent of households with youths, a disproportionate number of whom are Hispanic/Latino.

The researchers sought to determine whether food insecurity among Hispanic/Latino youth is associated with metabolic syndrome and other cardiometabolic markers, including waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose (FG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TGs), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

They analyzed data from 1,325 Hispanic/Latino youths ages 8-16 years participating in the Hispanic Community Children’s Health Study/Study of Latino Youth, which began with a baseline clinic visit between 2012 and 2014. Study participants were recruited from the Bronx, N.Y., Chicago, Miami, and San Diego.

Household and child food insecurity were assessed using the U.S. Department of Agriculture 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module.

Results showed youths in the lowest household and child food security categories had significantly worse HDL-C levels than those with high food security. Low/very low child food security was also associated with greater FG, TGs, and metabolic syndrome than high child food security.

Findings were strongest among youth with foreign-born parents/caregivers and whose families did not receive any food assistance in the previous year. 

“Nutrition policies are needed to improve Hispanic/Latino families’ access to food assistance programs, and we call on health care providers to consider early screening for food insecurity to identify youths who may benefit from additional resources,” noted the authors. 

“As food prices continue to rise as a consequence of the pandemic and other world events, it will be important to develop interventions to more effectively address food insecurity,” said senior author Sandra Albrecht, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. “Our findings suggest that this will be especially important for households that may not qualify for federal aid.”

Co-authors are Luis E. Maldonado, University of Southern California; Daniela Sotres-Alvarez, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Josiemer Mattei, Harvard University; Krista M. Perreira, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Amanda C. McClain, San Diego State University; Linda C. Gallo, San Diego State University; and Carmen R. Isasi, Einstein College of Medicine. 

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants HL102130, HL129969, DK107791, HD050924).  

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