People lost their jobs and their sources of income shrank, creating thousands more malnourished Oregonians.
In 2023, nearly 13% of state residents 鈥� about 530,000 individuals 鈥� suffered from 鈥渇ood insecurity鈥� in Oregon, according to a just-released Oregon State University analysis that looks at people鈥檚 inability to get enough food on the table in a predictable manner. That rate is lower than in the years following the Great Recession, but about two points higher than 2020, marking an increase of about 65,000 more people facing food insecurity during 2021 to 2023.
Renters, people who live alone, those with a lower education, rural residents and minority communities along with adults up to age 64 are more likely to face food insecurity.
With persistent food insecurity issues in Oregon, dozens of organizations like the Oregon Food Bank have stepped up their efforts to tackle the problem, partly in Washington D.C. More than 40 groups recently sent a letter to Oregon鈥檚 U.S. senators and representatives, urging them to oppose any reduction in food aid.
The groups are worried about the farm bill, a five-year program that covers agricultural subsidies, crop insurance and food aid like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP helps 680,000 Oregonians a year buy food to feed their families. The five-year farm bill expired last September and Congress has still not passed a new bill.
鈥淢any Oregonians need these resources now more than ever,鈥� Sarah Weber-Ogden, co-executive director of Partners for a Hunger-free Oregon, told the Capital Chronicle. 鈥淲e need Congress to understand that these programs can鈥檛 withstand any reduction in funding or reach 鈥� they鈥檙e too essential.鈥�
The Agriculture Committee in the Republican-controlled House passed a farm bill that would cut $30 billion from nutritional programs while a version introduced in the U.S. Senate would protect food aid. Neither is likely to make it to the finish line before the next Republican-dominated Congress is in session.
Historically high rates
Advocates say a cut in SNAP benefits, which are paid by the federal government, would particularly hurt Oregon.
Historically, Oregon has often had higher food insecurity rates than the rest of the country, something that has puzzled researchers, said Mark Edwards, an Oregon State University professor and lead researcher on the study. He pointed to the 1990s when the economy was booming, a time when presumably rates would be down.
But they weren鈥檛, soaring above the U.S. average.
Edwards said the state experienced a big influx of people at the time and that prices rose, creating wider disparities among various groups of people.
鈥淭he fraction of people who were struggling in terms of paying rent was high in Oregon compared to a lot of states,鈥� Edwards said. 鈥淪o from early on, we鈥檝e been thinking a lot about the role of housing and housing costs.鈥�
Renters, who are subject to the whims of the marketplace, are the most at risk. Oregon law limits year-over-year rent increases to the lesser of 10% or 7% plus inflation, but that law doesn鈥檛 apply to buildings constructed in the past 15 years.
During the 2021 to 2023 period covered by the analysis, researchers found that nearly 23% of renters experienced food insecurity compared with nearly 7% of homeowners. Renters generally face higher poverty rates than homeowners and have traditionally had higher rates of food insecurity, the analysis shows. Edwards said he wasn鈥檛 surprised by that high rate, saying it could have been even higher without pandemic-era eviction protections and expanded federal food benefits.
鈥淭he safety net during COVID really did keep the problem from getting as bad as it could have been,鈥� Edwards said.
But those protections are now gone.
The analysis says it remains to be seen how the priority put on building more housing, especially affordable homes, by Gov. Tina Kotek and the Legislature, with its allocation this year of nearly $380 million for housing, will affect food insecurity rates. Edwards said there鈥檚 no magic bullet for reducing hunger in a significant way, especially in a short period of time.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a hard thing to do to address in one budget,鈥� Edwards said.
It will take months and maybe years for the money to make an impact, and the high cost of housing is not the only factor at play in food insecurity. The analysis shows that people without a high school education face the highest rates of food insecurity and that they鈥檙e going up, with nearly one-third of those without a diploma facing hunger from 2021 to 2023 compared to 17% for those with an associate鈥檚 degree and more than 6% for those with a bachelor鈥檚.
Those who live alone 鈥� both men and women 鈥� experience higher rates of food insecurity than couples, but single mothers face the highest rates when looking at household composition: 28% in 2021 to 2023 compared with 15% for single women or 17% for single men.
High rates in rural Oregon
The analysis also found that rural residents experience higher rates of food insecurity than their urban counterparts 鈥� 21% compared with 12%. Although many people in the countryside have gardens and grow their own food, the vast majority of rural residents shop at grocery stores, Edwards said.
He doesn鈥檛 know exactly why rural folks in Oregon have faced a higher risk of food insecurity, but said it could be a combination of factors. They might not have easy access to state and federal benefits or might not have wanted to use them out of fear of being seen to need SNAP benefits, for example, or experiencing a stigma of going to a church food pantry.
Also during the pandemic, people were told to stay at home, which might have kept them away from food pantries, Edwards said.
But the curious thing is that Oregon is an outlier in having higher food insecurity rates in rural areas.
鈥淚t didn鈥檛 happen all over the country,鈥� Edwards said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still trying to figure out if there was something really unique about Oregon鈥檚 rural places that made it especially vulnerable.鈥�
With the next legislative session around the corner, Oregon鈥檚 Hunger Task Force, which includes lawmakers, agency staff, advocates and people who鈥檝e struggled with hunger, is working on a 鈥渞oadmap鈥� to address the state鈥檚 high food insecurity rates. The document, which is still in the works, will be presented to lawmakers during their three days of meetings next month, said Jacki Ward Kehrwald, the communications lead for the nonprofit Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon.
The document maps out three main principles 鈥� ensuring that food is affordable, easily accessible and culturally appropriate 鈥� and details a path forward that would bring together all facets related to hunger that need to work together to bring down food insecurity rates, said Weber-Ogden of Partners for a Hunger-free Oregon.