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End Hunger and Food Insecurity

Everyday Activism Network

What You Can Do To Support Food Justice

There are more than 800 million people experiencing hunger and 3 billion people experiencing food insecurity across the globe. In the U.S., more than 38 million people don’t have access to enough food. Yet, we have the solutions to end hunger. Whether you are interested in donating, volunteering, advocating, or organizing, you can help ensure healthy food is affordable and accessible to everyone.

Here’s how.

Learn some basic terminology about hunger and food insecurity

Hunger

The recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food.  Hunger causes malnutrition, diet-related illness, and even death.  

Food insecurity 

The lack of consistent access to enough nutritious and affordable food for an active and healthy life.  Malnutrition and obesity coexist as a consequence of food insecurity.  

In addition to poor physical and mental health, hunger and food insecurity perpetuate a cycle of poverty leading to a range of negative outcomes.  For example, impaired learning and reduced educational attainment, loss of productivity, and unemployment.

Food desert

Food deserts are caused by food apartheid. They are places where fresh, nutritious, and affordable food is unavailable. Food deserts occur in rural areas when people live too far away from grocery stores and other fresh food vendors or lack transportation. For example, many small-town grocers have been replaced by dollar stores that mostly sell canned and other non-perishable goods. In urban areas, grocery stores and other fresh food vendors often refuse to open in low-income neighborhoods. And when healthy and fresh options do exist in inner-cities, they are often more expensive and offer less variety than in the suburbs.

Food system 

A complex web of activities and actors to grow, produce, process, distribute, transport, prepare, consume, and dispose of food.  The food system produces enough to feed everyone on the plant and ensure no one is hungry.  Unfortunately, it also creates a lot of food waste. 

Food waste

Food that is thrown away instead of being eaten.  Edible food is discarded at every point within the food system, from production to preparation to being discarded by retailers, foodservice operators, and households.

Food justice 

A holistic approach to improving the food system to ensure universal access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally-appropriate food by addressing the root causes of food disparity (think racial and economic injustice).  

Food sovereignty 

Builds on the food justice movement to ensure people’s rights to create and control food systems that produce nutritious, affordable, and culturally-appropriate food through sustainable and equitable means. 

Take an intersectional and cross-movement approach to ending hunger

Intersectional and cross-movement approaches recognize that the complex causes and consequences of hunger and food insecurity include poverty, racial injustice, gender inequity, worker exploitation, and environmental degradation.  Intersectional approaches work alongside other movements to address:  

Hunger, poverty, and income inequality

Poverty and hunger are mutually reinforcing.  Lack of affordable housing, low wages, and high medical costs result in food insecurity and vice versa. The high cost of a healthy diet combined with persistent income inequality means many people are making impossible choices between buying food and paying for other basic necessities.  And the pandemic has only exacerbated the hunger crisis from lost income to inflation causing food prices to surge to supply chain disruptions that leave food bank shelves empty. 

Hunger and racial disparities

Racial disparities negatively impact communities of color and increase food insecurity.  These disparities include wage and wealth gaps, disproportionate poverty rates, racialized access to healthy and affordable food (see food deserts below),  land ownership discrimination, and neighborhood disinvestment.  According to poverty and food insecurity data released by American Progress, Black and Latinx households continue to experience food insecurity at over twice the rate of white households, with those numbers spiking in 2020 due to the pandemic.  And one in four Native Americans experiences food insecurity, making them one of the most vulnerable populations in the country. 

Hunger and the environment/climate crisis 

The way we grow, produce, package, distribute, and consume food is a major contributing factor to environmental degradation and climate change.  According to the UN, our food systems are responsible for 70% of the water extracted from nature, cause 60% of biodiversity loss, and generate over 30% of human greenhouse gas emissions.  Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of agriculture disruptions. Drought, floods, and other natural disasters can wipe out an entire harvest or destroy crops.  We must reduce the food system’s impact on climate change and scale its climate resilience. 

Reduce food waste and expand food recovery

Food waste is a massive problem in the U.S.  ReFED, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss, estimates that 35% of all food goes unsold or uneaten and that 24% of that – 54 million tons – ends up in landfills, incinerators, dumps, compost, or down sewers.  That’s almost 90 billion meals worth of food wasted. 

Eliminating food waste must include robust food recovery and food rescue projects that reroute uneaten food to those who need it.  Currently, only 10% of edible food waste is recovered annually.  Learn more and get involved with the Food Recovery Network. 

To end food waste across the entire food system, we need real and radical systems change.  That said, households are responsible for the largest portion of food waste. 

Here are a few things you can do:

  • Reduce your personal food waste and the food waste of your household.  Try keeping a food waste journal to track how much food you throw away and why.  For example, is it due to over-preparing, label confusion (think: ‘sell by’ vs. ‘expires by’), or overbuying and poor planning that lead to food spoilage? 

  • Take Sustainable America’s I Value Food 6-week challenge to help you discover why food is going to waste in your house and to learn how to make easy shifts in how you shop, store, and prepare food. 

  • Get others to join you.  Share what you’ve learned with those around you and ask them to take part in an end food waste campaign.  Help your school, workplace, faith organization, or other community establishments where food is consumed to take action to reduce food waste.  For example, you can donate uneaten food to food recovery and food rescue projects or start a food scraps composting program.  

  • Support businesses that reduce food waste and participate in recovery and rescue programs. Find out which grocers, restaurants, and other food retailers in your area are working to prevent food waste and donate excess food. 

  • Donate leftovers and excess food. See the Donate Food section below to learn how.

Donate cash instead of food

When you have the choice to make a cash donation versus donating food — even when organizations are running food drives — we recommend donating cash to increase your impact.  Donating cash is often more cost-effective.  Nonprofits typically can purchase items they need in bulk, at a discount, and with less sales tax.  For the amount you spend on a can of soup to donate to a food bank, that food bank could use those same funds to buy three cans of soup.  In addition, organizations rely on cash donations to pay for things like staff salaries, utilities, and other supplies needed for their day-to-day operations.  Learn more in our Making the Most Of Your Monetary Donations guide.

Donate to local groups

Donate at the national level

Increase your impact when you donate food

If you prefer to donate food instead of cash, here are a few tips to increase your impact.

  • Donate healthy foods. All people deserve healthy, nutritious, and culturally-appropriate food.  Many people who rely on food assistance have health-related dietary restrictions such as from diabetes.  Food donations should reflect this.  Whether you are participating in a food drive or donating directly, make sure to get a list of needed items from the organization you plan to donate to and check out Feeding America’s Healthy Food Donation List.

  • Stock up community-self-supported projects. Find your local community fridge or mutual aid project. 

  • Donate leftovers and excess food. You can donate leftovers from parties, company events, and other gatherings where the prepared food is in a securely closed container that has not been plated. Learn more at Rescuing Food Leftovers.

Volunteer to end hunger and food insecurity

Serving meals, distributing rescued food, cultivating a community garden, stocking shelves at the food pantry or co-op, as well as awareness-raising, advocacy, and community organizing are all great ways to volunteer to end hunger and create a just and equitable food system.  And remember, organizations also need your professional skills (think: accounting, marketing, social media). 

  • Make volunteering a year-round priority.  Many people like to volunteer around the holidays.  This can create a surplus of volunteers and decrease your impact.  Consider volunteering year-round or on any regular day of the year. 

  • Participate in Hunger Action Month.  Held every September, it’s a month-long campaign to bring attention to the reality of food insecurity and promote ways that you can help your community.

  • Join a CROP Hunger Walk to raise funds to support local hunger-fighting efforts.

  • Check out our How To Volunteer guide for additional tips, and visit the websites of the organizations mentioned in this guide to find volunteer opportunities.  

Support government programs to end hunger and food insecurity

Laws, policies, and programs that help reduce poverty, protect workers, increase access to food, and fund food programs are essential to ending hunger and food insecurity.  About one in four Americans participate in at least one government food assistance program in a typical year, and current numbers are far above pre-pandemic levels.   

Tell your elected officials to take action

Let them know you support laws, policies, and programs, including:

  • Extending the strengthened Child Tax Credit.

  • Expanding summer feeding programs for children and their families, including making Sumer Electronic Transfer (EBT) programs permanent nationwide.

  • Ensuring food banks can meet increased demands by providing additional food and capacity funds.

  • Increasing funding for and expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

  • Strengthening The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).

  • Passing the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.

  • Raising the minimum wage.

Stay up-to-date and take action with your favorite food justice organizations or groups like Feeding America, Philabundance, and Food Corps.

Learn about programs that make it easier to sign up for and utilize benefits

Billions of dollars in government benefits go unclaimed and don’t make it into the hands of eligible people in need. Red tape can purposefully make it more difficult and time-consuming to apply for aid.  About 18% of food stamps, 22% of earned-income tax credit, and 76% of TANF benefits go unclaimed.  Check out programs like these that are using tech to reduce barriers.

  • Propel created the app, Providers, to see your EBT balance and manage all of your benefits in one place.

  • Code for America partners with states to develop portals to make it easier to apply for food stamps.

Support solutions to expand food access and eliminate food deserts

Many low-income communities, communities of color, and rural communities lack access to fresh and affordable food because they live in a food desert caused by food apartheid.  Making the food system more just and equitable and ending hunger and food security can’t be solved with just one approach.  Here are just a few solutions you can support to help expand food access and eliminate food deserts.

Buy local food

Community gardens, food co-ops, farmers’ markets, mobile markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs) help build strong local food economies.  Buying locally supports local farmers, boosts the economy, and creates jobs.  It’s also better for the environment.  Perhaps more importantly, it helps decrease food insecurity by reducing food deserts and improving access to a variety of locally available nutritious and affordable food. 

Promote urban agriculture 

Urban agriculture helps poor households grow healthy substitutes to purchased food.  It includes backyard, rooftop, and community gardens, vertical farming, and raising chickens and other small livestock.  You can promote urban agriculture by advocating for loosened zoning laws that allow for urban farming in your neighborhood and help create access to abandoned and under-utilized outdoor spaces.  Learn more with NAHMA’s urban farming resource list.  

Increase access to food-producing lands for communities of color

White landowners own over 98% of all farmland in the U.S.  Famers of color, in particular, face barriers to accessing quality and affordable farmland. And Native Americans, whose land was stolen from them, must comply with government-imposed land-use restrictions that prohibit traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering methods that could help to alleviate Native Americans’ food insecurity. It’s also important to acknowledge that these racial disparities are a result of our history of slavery where enslaved people’s free labor was used to work farmland for centuries, racist policies that forced Black farmers from their land throughout the 1900s, and current policies that continue to exacerbate inequities in land ownership. Learn more and get involved in the One Million Acres Campaign. 

Oppose unfair trade rules and improve trade policies

Large multinational corporations are able to lobby for trade policies that benefit them over small-scale farmers. The climate crisis is rapidly changing where and how food is grown across much of the world. Even though we grow enough food on this planet for no one to have to go hungry, surplus countries do not adequately supply deficit countries with the quantity, quality, or variety of food needed to end food insecurity. In addition, the pandemic has illuminated cracks in the corporate food system by highlighting the need to decentralize food supply chains, localize production, and strengthen competitiveness. The trade justice movement advocates for just trade over free trade or fair trade and calls on governments to enact trade policies that provide the best opportunities for ending poverty, eliminating hunger, and protecting the planet. Learn more and get involved with Fair World Project.

Become a local food justice advocate

Lift up the issue of hunger in your community and raise awareness on what your community can do to end hunger and food insecurity. 

  • Talk to your friends and family about what you’ve learned and how you are taking action to make food systems more just and equitable for all.  Ask them to join you on the journey. 

  • Dispel myths and stereotypes about what causes hunger and who hungry and food insecure people are.  The more you know about the food system and root causes of hunger and food insecurity, the harder it is to blame individuals for their misfortune.  

  • Host a movie screening or book club followed by a Q&A to help your community gain a greater understanding of the issue and to energize people to co-create community solutions.  Check out these lists of what to read, watch, and listen to from Food Tank. Or browse the Food First book store and U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance’s reading list.  You can also screen a PBS POV documentary series with helpful question guides and tips on how to host a screening. 

  • Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to raise awareness about the reality of hunger and food insecurity, and how it impacts your community. Recommend localized solutions and ask locally elected officials to take action.

Demand an end to food worker exploitation

Much of the food we eat has been grown, picked, processed, packaged, prepared, delivered, or served by workers in sub-standard conditions (think: poverty wages, occupational hazards, pesticide exposure, violence, and sexual assault). Sometimes these workers are even subject to forced labor, a form of human trafficking or modern slavery.

Farmworkers (the people involved in planting, cultivating, and harvesting our food) are among the most vulnerable work populations in the U.S.  Almost 80% of farmworkers are foreign-born, and an estimated 60% are undocumented.  

Workers should be able to afford the food they create.  Fast food workers have been leading the fight to increase the minimum wage since 2012, when workers in New York City walked off the job and took direct action to demand fair and dignified work, igniting a national movement.

Ending hunger and food security includes creating a food system that is fair to food workers.   Read these Learn and Take Action guides for ideas:

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Originally published December 21, 2021.

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