Charitable Food Use Increased Nearly 50 Percent from 2019 to 2020

In this brief, Urban Institute uses data from the December 2020 round of the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS), a nationally representative survey of more than 7,500 adults ages 18 to 64, to examine charitable food use (defined as the use of free groceries or free meals) this past year compared with use in 2019 as well as how use of assistance in 2020 varies across demographic groups. Findings include adults’ reported household use of charitable food in the past 12 months grew almost 50 percent between December 2019 and December 2020 and adults who identify as Black or Hispanic/Latinx were almost three times more likely than white adults to report accessing charitable food during 2020. #covid-19 #foodsecurity #racialequity