Map the Meal Gap

Since 2011, Feeding America has conducted an annual Map the Meal Gap study to improve understanding of food insecurity and food costs at the local level. This study provides data with a focus on the extent and variation in local food insecurity levels in 2021. A strong public and private response to the COVID-19 crisis helped mitigate national food insecurity from rising significantly in 2020, and many of the response efforts continued at heightened levels into 2021. The result at the national level was a decline in food insecurity in 2021 for both the overall population and for children, with rates reaching the lowest levels on record. But the study also shows that food insecurity did not improve everywhere, and significant disparities continue to exist both within and across geographies.