A separate analysis by researchers at Northwestern found insecurity has more than tripled among households with children to 29.5%. An analysis by the Brookings Institution conducted earlier this summer found that in late June, 27.5% of households with children were food insecure - meaning some 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity. More than 5 million children lived in these homes. In non-pandemic times, households with children were nearly 1.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity than households without children, according to the USDA, which reported that 13.6% of households with children experienced food insecurity last year. Millions more children are experiencing food insecurity According to one estimate by researchers at Northwestern University, food insecurity more than doubled as a result of the economic crisis brought on by the outbreak, hitting as many as 23% of households earlier this year. The coronavirus pandemic has only worsened the problem. The rest were able to obtain enough food to avoid completely disrupting their eating patterns, but had to cope by eating less varied diets or utilizing food assistance programs. That works out to more than 35 million Americans who were either unable to acquire enough food to meet their needs, or uncertain of where their next meal might come from, last year.ДЇor about a third of these households, access to food was so limited that their eating patterns were disrupted and food intake was reduced. households, experienced food insecurity at some point during 2019, according to data from the U.S. Here's a closer look at the landscape: Nearly 1 in 4 households have experienced food insecurity this yearД®ven before the pandemic hit, some 13.7 million households, or 10.5% of all U.S. It's a crisis that's testing families, communities and the social safety net in ways that may have seemed unthinkable before the pandemic began.

'COVID has just wreaked havoc on so many things: on public health, on economic stability and obviously on food insecurity,' said Luis Guardia, the president of the Food, Research and Action Center.

But now, as economic instability and a health crisis takes over, new estimates point to some of the worst rates of food insecurity in the United States in years. Before the pandemic, the number of families experiencing food insecurity - defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life - had been steadily falling. In communities across the country, the lines at food pantries are stretching longer and longer, and there's no clear end in sight. With COVID-19 continuing to spread, and millions of Americans still out of work, one of the nation's most urgent problems has only grown worse: hunger. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Food Bank for New York City Food Bank For New York City hosts a pop-up food pantry during Hunger Action Month at Lincoln Center on September 24, 2020.

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