On Tuesdays, volunteers at Neighbor’s Cupboard unload boxes of dry goods and sort fresh produce in Winterport, Maine, on Aug. 26, 2025. (Katherine Emery/The Maine Monitor via AP)
Phylis Allen organizes supplies at Neighbor’s Cupboard in Winterport, Maine, on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, a food pantry that she has helped run for the past 17 years. (Katherine Emery/The Maine Monitor via AP)
After cuts to food stamps, Trump administration ends government’s annual report on hunger in America
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become 鈥渙verly politicized鈥 and 鈥渞ife with inaccuracies.鈥
On Tuesdays, volunteers at Neighbor’s Cupboard unload boxes of dry goods and sort fresh produce in Winterport, Maine, on Aug. 26, 2025. (Katherine Emery/The Maine Monitor via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become 鈥渙verly politicized鈥 and 鈥渞ife with inaccuracies.鈥
The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Republicans muscled through Congress in July means , also known as SNAP benefits.
The decision to scrap the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Household Food Security Report was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
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In a press release Saturday, the USDA said the 2024 report, to be released Oct. 22, would be the last.
鈥淭he questions used to collect the data are entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security,’’ the USDA said. 鈥漈he data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration.’’
The Census Bureau reported earlier this month that the from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% last year, before Trump took office.
Critics were quick to accuse the administration of deliberately making it harder to measure hunger and assess the impact of its cuts to food stamps.
鈥淭rump is cancelling an annual government survey that measures hunger in America, rather than allow it to show hunger increasing under his tenure,鈥 Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said on social media. 鈥淭his follows the playbook of many non-democracies that cancel or manipulate reports that would otherwise show less-than-perfect news.鈥
