Food for life: Health care’s role in improving health through food assistance benefits

It is hard to forget the anxiety we felt around skyrocketing unemployment and empty grocery shelves in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this was just a moment in time, millions of Americans continue to struggle without adequate access to food. Prior to the pandemic, 35 million Americans were at risk of food insecurity, which was made worse by the fallout from COVID-19. During the pandemic, more than 20 percent of Americans (approximately one in four households) were estimated to have faced food insecurity. As the nation works to emerge from COVID-19, food insecurity rates remain disproportionately higher among low-income populations, households with children, and Black and Hispanic households.