Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Food Insecurity by Race/Ethnicity, New Jersey, 2019 to 2022
Indicator Report Data View Options
Why Is This Important?
Inconsistent access to adequate amounts of nutritious food can have a negative impact on the health of individuals of all ages. In the US, adults in food insecure households are much more likely than food secure adults to have hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic health problems. Although food insecurity is harmful to any individual, it can be particularly devastating among children because they are more vulnerable to potential long-term consequences for their future physical and mental health and academic achievement.
Definition
Food insecurity refers to the USDA's measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household's need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.
Data Notes
Counts by race/ethnicity not available. Data for White do not include Hispanics, data for Black include Hispanics and non-Hispanics, and Hispanic ethnicity includes persons of any race. These estimates use the race/ethnicity of the household respondent as a proxy for the race/ethnicity of all members of the household. This may result in over- or underestimation of food insecurity in some cases. Estimates for specific race/ethnicity groups are less certain than the overall population level estimates due to smaller sample sizes. We recommend considering these estimates in conjunction with other quantitative and qualitative data as well as insights from the individuals who live in these communities. Results are not available for individuals who identify as Asian, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or multiple races because sample sizes in the Current Population Survey are too small or the required data are unavailable to generate reliable estimates.Data Source
Map the Meal Gap Report, Feeding America, U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service(http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america)
How the Measure is Calculated
Numerator:
Estimated number of persons living in food-insecure householdsDenominator:
Estimated number of persons in population
Data Issues
Due to changes in methodology, estimates from before 2018 are not comparable to those from more recent years.Related Health Objectives and Indicators
Health Initiative: HP2030
Healthy People 2030 Objective NWS-01
U.S. Target: Reduce household food insecurity and hunger to 6.0 percent of households by 2030
https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/reduce-household-food-insecurity-and-hunger-nws-01Healthy People 2030 Objective NWS-02
U.S. Target: Reduce very low food security among children to 0 percent of households with children under age 18 years by 2030
https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/eliminate-very-low-food-security-children-nws-02
Health Initiative: HP2020
Healthy People 2020 Objective NWS-13
U.S. Target: Reduce household food insecurity and in doing so reduce hunger to 6.0 percent of households by 2020
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-statusHealthy People 2020 Objective NWS-12
U.S. Target: Reduce very low food security among children to 0.2 percent of households with children by 2020
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-status
Health Initiative: CDI
Chronic Disease Indicator SDH04
Description: Food insecure in the past 12 months among households
https://www.cdc.gov/cdi/indicator-definitions/sdoh.html