Food insecurity on the rise among US army members, their dependents

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
4 Jan 2023 16:39
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New research sheds the light on food insecurity among the US army and military families.

US forces (Archive)

RAND Corporation, a research organization, examined the issue of food insecurity among US military personnel and their dependents and revealed some key findings.

“Approximately 15.4 percent of all active duty personnel would be classified by the US Department of Agriculture as having low food security in 2018. Another 10.4 percent would be classified as having very low food security,” as per RAND researchers.

The report went on to say that “food insecurity was higher among those living on the post," stressing that 14% of those classified as food insecure in 2018 reported using food assistance in the past year.

“Only 14 percent of those classified as food insecure in 2018 reported using food assistance in the past 12 months in the form of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), food banks, SNAP, or the DoD program called the Family Sub-assistance Supplemental Allowance (FSSA),” the report detailed.

Members who were food insecure were more likely to have a second job or a spouse who worked part-time, according to the findings.

The report also emphasized that “some stakeholders also mentioned that members were concerned that seeking help for food insecurity or for general financial problems would negatively affect their continued access to a security clearance.”

The finding also unmasked that “the top five states with the highest share of members eligible for the BNA would be Texas, Georgia, California, North Carolina, and Virginia.”

This comes shortly after US President Joe Biden inked a $1.7 trillion funding plan that includes another large package for Ukraine --$45 billion in emergency military and economic supplies.

Ukraine has received billions and billions of dollars in donated arms from the United States and its allies, such as the United Kingdom and other NATO states, in the past few months.