Spotlight on Food Hardship: Compounding hardships and health challenges among New Yorkers struggling to afford food
This Poverty Tracker report shows how food hardship increased from 2021 to 2022—rising from 30% to 34% among adults and from 39% to 43% among families with children—and documents how commonly it overlaps with other hardships and health challenges.
Key Findings
In 2022 more than a third (34%) of adults and almost half (43%) of families with children in New York City experienced food hardship.
Nearly 1 in 10 adults (7%) and families with children (7%) experienced severe food hardship in 2022.
The overwhelming majority (81%) of New Yorkers facing severe food hardship also experience at least one other material hardship, such as having utilities shut off, staying in a shelter, running out of money, or not seeing a doctor because of cost. The same is true for 51% of New Yorkers facing moderate food hardship.
New Yorkers enduring severe food hardship also have elevated rates of health problems (49%), serious psychological distress (42%), and low levels of life satisfaction (50%). 4 in 5 (80%) of those facing severe food hardship experience at least one of these challenges.
Qualitative stories reinforce these findings, but also show that robust policy and programmatic support can help New Yorkers afford food and manage some of the problems that “pile up” alongside food hardship. However, many policy supports that were expanded during the height of the pandemic have since expired, leaving families vulnerable to multiple forms of hardship.
The Poverty Tracker is a longitudinal study of the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in New York City. It is a joint project of Robin Hood and Columbia University.
