Officials with the Arkansas Foodbank are now sharing how the discontinuation of the USDA’s annual food insecurity survey could impact their work.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — With changes coming to federal benefits programs, the Trump administration is also cutting an annual report that tries to measure how many people need those benefits.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) household food security report is being discontinued. The secretary of the agency explained that the report had become redundant and politically subjective.
The report is set to come out on October 22, 2025, but that will be the last one set to be released.
However, there are other data points that can be used when the report is no longer available to make sure that food is going to the areas that need it the most.
“We are not the full solution to hunger within the state of Arkansas; we are just a part of that,” said Claire Tiffin, the Director of Community Engagement with the Arkansas Foodbank.
Reports show that one in five adults and one in four children face food insecurity in Arkansas. Data helps drive where resources can go in the state from the foodbank and provide important data, but just because the household food security report will no longer be available after this year doesn’t mean there isn’t data.
“I would not say that that is the end-all be-all of data, though, that data feeds a lot of Feeding America’s data. That’s where we get our county-to-county information, but we, as the Arkansas Food Bank, have our own sources of data. Feeding America also has so many data-gathering programs that, like I would like to say that this is more of a loss of consistent data, but it is not all of our data gone,” she explained.
The report gives a lot of great data, but there are other sources.
“I already know Feeding America has been in the works of trying to get their own launched. They also plan three years in advance. So, the last of these studies is going to be released this October, that will cover us for the year. They already have other sources of data that they’ve been gathering, and so we’re pretty good in this interim,” she added.
With some of the rural counties in the state, having the data is critical when it comes to an emergency, but the data can also give a heads-up to food providers.
“So especially in the rural counties, they don’t have a lot of systems in place to keep track of hunger, so data on food security, especially in those rural regions, is absolutely necessary to meet the need with that,” Tiffin said.
Staff with the foodbank explained that they are going to continue to follow the data that they already have in place to serve those who need food the most.
“We already have systems in place to gather data at all of our pantries, but we are absolutely committed to continuing to serve our families, because there is no way to know the full scope of hunger unless you’re asking these questions, gathering those data points, and so we don’t want to risk anyone being,” said Tiffin.
With the holidays quickly approaching, the foodbank said this is their busiest time of year.
The Arkansas Foodbank is also looking for volunteers or donations. You can find more information by clicking here.
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