Is Food Insecurity Growing Faster in Pennsylvania Than Nationally? A Food Bank Report Compared the Two

In Cameron County, about 1 in 6 people struggled to get enough to eat in 2024.

Across Pennsylvania, the rate climbed sharply after 2021, a food bank report found.

Here’s what the report found about food insecurity in Pennsylvania, and where it hits hardest.

Note: This is general information, not financial advice. Benefit rules and dollar amounts for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are subject to change, so confirm current eligibility with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

Where the Report’s Numbers Come From

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank wrote the report, which it labels a statewide report.

The county numbers you’ll see here come from Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap.

Feeding America estimates each county’s rate in two steps.

First, it studies how food insecurity relates to factors such as poverty and unemployment at the state level.

Then it applies that pattern to each county’s numbers on those same factors.

The 2026 edition covers 2024 and came out in July 2026.

That’s a two-year lag.

The food bank added SNAP participation numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, covering December 2024 through July 2026, plus service records from 115 partner pantries.

If your household has trouble getting the food it needs for an active, healthy life, the report counts it as food insecure.

The central comparison is 2021 against 2024.

Rates in 2021 and 2024

Pennsylvania’s food insecurity rate was 9.4% in 2021 and 13.5% in 2024.

The comparison starts in 2021, when national food insecurity was at a recent low.

From there, Pennsylvania’s rate rose 44%, compared with 38% nationwide, the report found.

Nationally, the rate for individuals was 14.4% in 2024, less than a point above Pennsylvania’s 13.5%.

That works out to roughly 1 in 11 Pennsylvanians in 2021 and 1 in 7 in 2024.

If you picture an office of 30 coworkers, that’s about three people in 2021 and about four in 2024.

More than 1.76 million Pennsylvanians, including more than half a million children, faced food insecurity in 2024.

If you measure from 2020 instead, the rise passes 50%.

Rates by Age

Food insecurity was more common among Pennsylvania’s children than adults in 2024, with children 60% more likely than adults over 18 to face it.

Their rate was 19.3%, up from 18.1% in 2023.

That’s about 1 child in 5, so in a class of 30, you’d expect around six.

If you’re 18 to 59, your age group’s rate was 14.9%.

Adults 60 or older had a rate of 6.2%, roughly a third of the children’s.

County by County

Food insecurity ranged from 9.0% in Chester County to 17.8% in Cameron County in 2024.

That’s nearly a nine-point gap.

Philadelphia was close behind Cameron at 17.3%, followed by Fayette at 17.0%.

Philadelphia and Allegheny counties had 274,020 and 156,530 food-insecure people, nearly a quarter of the state’s total.

The report found 32 counties with child food insecurity rates of 20% or higher, nearly half of the state’s 67.

If you live in a rural county, the average rate was 14.0%, compared with 13.0% in metro counties.

You can find your county’s rate in the report.

The Missing Federal Report

In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would end its annual household food security report, which it said had run for 30 years.

The food bank's report calls it the gold-standard source on how common food insecurity is across the country, and says the cancellation makes other data sources, including intake records from food pantries, even more valuable.

Jobs and Grocery Prices

Unemployment and grocery prices sit alongside food insecurity in the report.

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate rose from 3.8% in June 2024 to 4.1% in June 2026, though the report calls that still historically low.

Nationwide, grocery prices rose 2.6% year over year in July 2026, compared with 1.1% in July 2024.

Nationally, they're up 33% in total since July 2019.

If your cart cost $150 in July 2019, the same groceries would cost about $200 by July 2026 at the national rate.

SNAP Participation

Pennsylvania's participation in SNAP, also known as food stamps, fell from about 2.02 million people in December 2024 to 1.72 million in July 2026.

That's a 14.7% decline, which the report attributes to benefit reductions and eligibility changes to SNAP.

In that stretch, participation fell by more than 296,000 people.

Participation among children is down 13.5% since December 2024, while adults are down 15.3%.

If you receive SNAP, you're one of about 1.72 million Pennsylvanians participating as of July 2026.

You may notice these months fall well after 2024, so the food insecurity estimates don't reflect them.

Demand at the Pantries

Across 115 partner pantries that use a digital intake platform serving 34,000 people monthly, demand rose an average of 9.1% since January 2025, according to the report.

If you live in central Pennsylvania, a pantry near you may be one of its partners.

That's 115 pantries in one network, so the 9.1% describes them, not every pantry in the state.