This Hunger Action Month, new data reveals half of Virginia families with kids are experiencing food insecurity.
The inaugural Virginia Hunger Study engaged more than 5,600 Virginians to understand the prevalence, drivers and health impacts of food insecurity on households. The results highlight that hunger is affecting Virginians at extremely high rates.
No Kid Hungry Virginia partnered with the Federation of Virginia Food Banks and the Virginia Department of Social Services to field the first statewide, Virginia-only survey to measure food insecurity using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) standard 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module.
The data is important and fills an information gap left after the USDA ended its annual state-level food insecurity estimates in 2025, which had been published for nearly three decades.
The statewide survey finds that 42% of Virginia households were food insecure – defined as any member of a household lacking consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life – at some point between May 2025 and May 2026. The study examines food insecurity rates across the seven regional food banks in Virginia.
No Kid Hungry Virginia Director Sarah Steely shared the following statement about the Virginia Hunger Study:
“The latest food insecurity numbers are alarming and heartbreaking. These are our neighbors who are skipping meals or making difficult trade-offs to pay for housing, healthcare and transportation costs. Congress passed the largest and most damaging cuts to SNAP in the program’s history last year. These cuts, plus high grocery prices and other budget pressures, mean that parents living on low incomes are having to make tough decisions about which basic needs to prioritize and which expenses must be delayed or sacrificed.”
Here are four things to know about the Virginia Hunger Study and its implications.
1. Food insecurity is more severe among households with children.
Food insecurity rates are even higher among households with children: 51% of families with kids were food insecure.
Here’s a breakdown of food insecurity in households with children across the seven food bank service areas:
- Capital Area Food Bank (Virginia counties): 43%
- Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank: 40%
- Blue Ridge Area Food Bank: 44%
- Feeding Southwest Virginia Food Bank: 70%
- Feed More (Central Virginia): 51%
- Virginia Peninsula Food Bank: 62%
- Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore: 56%
2. Inflation and disparities compound the crisis
Inflation has had a severe impact on food-insecure households’ budgets, with 87% saying that higher-than-usual prices for groceries and food are causing major strain, compared with 42% of food-secure adults.
Rural areas experienced the highest rates in the state, though fewer Virginians live in these areas. Southwest Virginia, for example, saw the highest levels at 55%. However, even in Northern Virginia, the area with the lowest rates, nearly one in three households (32%) experienced food insecurity during the year. And in a state with an unusually large federal workforce, one-third of Virginians said the 2025 government shutdown had a negative financial impact on their household.
Black and Hispanic Virginians also experienced food insecurity at roughly twice the rate reported by white Virginians.
3. SNAP participation in Virginia continues to decline
The Virginia Hunger Study is being released as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation has declined by more than 110,000 people in Virginia since H.R. 1 was enacted in 2025.
Last year, Congress cut SNAP by nearly $200 billion, the largest cut in program history. Most critically, harmful structural changes that shift costs to states could threaten the program’s future.
SNAP is our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, helping ensure millions of Americans – and hundreds of thousands of Virginians – have enough to eat when times are tough.
SNAP does much more than fill a child’s empty stomach. We can see in the research that children who receive SNAP do better in school, including increasing their likelihood of graduating. Access to healthy food also helps develop memory, social skills and emotional stability, which are all crucial for academic success.
4. Downward trend in SNAP participation threatens food access in Virginia
SNAP cuts will have ripple effects on other nutrition programs, including school meals. When students participate in programs like SNAP, they are automatically eligible for free school breakfast and lunch, without their household being required to fill out additional paperwork. Losing access to SNAP may mean losing access to free school meals, resulting in increased meal debt and greater strain on household budgets.
And if enough students in a particular school lose access to programs like SNAP, the entire school may lose access to the opportunity to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a USDA option that allows eligible schools to serve no-cost breakfast and lunch to all students. CEP eligibility and funding are based on student participation in programs like SNAP.
This spring, we shared that over 1,200 Virginia public schools within 116 school divisions participated in CEP, helping to connect nearly 708,000 students with free school breakfast and lunch. That’s roughly 60% of the state’s learners.
By decreasing stigma and eliminating paperwork burdens for busy families, schools that participate in CEP are associated with meaningful increases in school meals participation.
But as families lose SNAP and access to other benefits, it will make it harder for schools to be eligible for or financially sustain CEP. Without CEP status, school nutrition leaders would need to go back to collecting school meal applications – a burdensome process for school nutrition teams and families alike.
Looking ahead
We are grateful that Virginia is already taking action at the state level to help schools weather these changes. The 2026 state budget includes $17.6 million to increase per-meal breakfast reimbursement for qualifying schools — intended to help divisions offset rising costs and expand participation through innovative service models like Breakfast After the Bell. The budget also includes $135 million in new state SNAP funding to cover some of the costs the federal government is no longer providing to the commonwealth.
The recent Keep Virginia Covered executive order is an important step to build partnerships that will help keep more Virginians connected to critical nutrition and healthcare supports.
You can count on No Kid Hungry Virginia to continue our longtime public-private partnership, bringing grant funding, technical assistance, and best practices that will help schools and community partners improve systems and protect nutrition access efforts. We remain committed to amplifying clear, accurate information about program changes and partnering on family outreach to ensure that all kids have the nutrition they need to thrive.
Learn more about Virginia Hunger Study here.
The survey was conducted by the independent nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago with support from researchers at Virginia Tech.
