Securing Food, Securing Our Health: The Impact of Food Insecurity on Latinx Children & Families

​Summary: California helps feed the nation and the world, producing more agriculture than any other state in the U.S. The vast majority — approximately 83% — of the essential agricultural workers who pick and produce the nation’s food are Latinx. Yet, in 2020, more than one in three Latinx adults across California lived in food-insecure households, according to data from the 2020 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Nearly 950,000 of those adults lived in food-insecure households that included children.

This brief provides an overview of food insecurity that impacts Latinx children and families as well as these policy recommendations to address structural barriers to food access for Latinx Californians:

• Expand the California Food Assistance Program regardless of age or immigration status.
• Engage effective inter-agency coordination of and enrollment in safety net benefits.
• Use community-based models for outreach and enrollment of safety-net programs.
• Support meal programs that reach children.
• Make current state and federal pandemic-era nutrition and economic relief programs permanent.

Read the Publication:

• Policy Brief: Securing Food, Securing Our Health: The Impact of Food Insecurity on Latinx Children & Families