Families sacrifice nutritious meals and must decide between food and bills in order to feed their kids
[September 3, 2024, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS]－A new poll from No Kid Hungry Texas finds it has become harder to afford groceries, leading to widespread food insecurity across the state. The study shows rural Texans and parents of school-aged children are being hit hardest by the crisis.
More than three-quarters of Texans (77%) reported that it has become harder to afford groceries over the last twelve months. This finding marks a worsening trend captured in the previous year’s study, which found that 73% of Texans had a harder time affording groceries than the year before.
This had a real impact on families, with nearly half of Texans (44%) reporting at least one sign of food insecurity, marked by either not having enough to eat, eating low-quality food, and/or eating a limited variety of food due to cost. Families have been forced to make difficult tradeoffs, with more than half (52%) having to decide between purchasing food and paying for another essential, such as rent, utilities, gas, a home or car repair, or medical bills.
“We are disheartened to see that for many Texans, the food affordability crisis is getting worse,” said Stacie Sanchez Hare, director of No Kid Hungry Texas. “Our poll shows it’s becoming harder to afford groceries – particularly for parents and rural Texans – and as a result, far too many families are being forced to buy less healthy alternatives and making impossible decisions like whether to buy enough food or keep the lights on.”
When asked how an unlimited grocery budget would impact their lives, respondents overwhelmingly shared about eating more nutritious foods, experiencing less worry, and allocating funds towards other bills and essentials. “I could actually make my kids healthier meals for once instead of instant noodles and nuggets. My kids will be excited to eat.” shared a mom from Brazos County. Another respondent from Dallas County noted the difficult tradeoffs that would be avoided if grocery costs were no longer an issue: “[We] would eat healthier, pay more bills on time, and not have to look at the possible repo of the family vehicle.”
“What we’re hearing is that additional grocery dollars would be a game-changer for families in their ability to provide a healthy, balanced diet for their kids,” said Sanchez Hare. “Nutrition is often the first thing to go when money is tight, and families should not have to make impossible choices between a healthy meal or paying the utility bill. This is why we’re urging our elected officials to implement proven policy solutions like Summer EBT that will help bridge this nutrition gap by offering additional grocery-buying benefits directly to families.”
The topline findings of the report are as follows:
- It’s getting harder and harder to afford groceries: More than three-quarters (77%) of Texans say it’s getting harder to afford groceries, and 81% of respondents say that the cost of food is rising faster than their income.
- Parents of school-aged children and rural Texans continue to face the biggest struggles. Half (51%) of public school families and half (53%) of rural residents reported signs of food insecurity in the past 12 months due to cost.
- Texans are making difficult tradeoffs to make ends meet: More than half (52%) of Texans have had to choose between paying for food and another essential cost in the last 12 months, including rent, utilities, gas, medicine, or repairs to the car or home. This number increases to 60% for parents of schoolchildren, and 66% for rural Texans.
- Nutrition is sacrificed in the face of high grocery costs: Texans are buying less healthy foods because of high costs: 49% bought less (or no) protein, and 43% bought less (or no) fresh produce. These numbers increase for both parents and rural Texans.
- Texans demand bipartisan action on childhood hunger: 95% say that elected officials in Texas should do more to end childhood hunger, and 97% say that ending childhood hunger in Texas should be a shared, bipartisan goal.
No Kid Hungry Texas commissioned the survey from Change Research, which surveyed 1,133 Texas adults including many parents of school-aged children. The poll was fielded between July 22 – 26, 2024 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4%. A summary of the results is available here, along with the questionnaire, methodology, and full results here.
About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids could face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. Join us at NoKidHungry.org.
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