Indiana food bank criticizes Trump administration for canceling hunger report

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending the federal government's annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become “overly politicized” and “rife with inaccuracies.”

The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tax and spending cuts bill Republicans muscled through Congress in July means 3 million people would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.

The decision to scrap the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Household Food Security Report was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a press release this past Saturday, the USDA said the 2024 report, to be released Oct. 22, would be the last.

“The questions used to collect the data are entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security,'' the USDA said. ”The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration.''

The Census Bureau reported earlier this month that the U.S. poverty rate dipped from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% last year, before Trump took office.

Critics were quick to accuse the administration of deliberately making it harder to measure hunger and assess the impact of its cuts to food stamps.

Fred Glass, president and CEO of Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, said the cancellation of the report will deny the American public information that would benefit society as a whole

"While cancelling the Hunger Report will make it harder to fight hunger, it won't change the fact that the federal government's policies are driving more Americans into worse hunger," Glass said in a statement released Wednesday. "Hunger isn't a them problem; it's an us problem, and it's there for all to see."

One million people, including over 300,000 children, are hungry in Indiana, according to Gleaners. The food bank serves 21 counties in Central Indiana.

"We all know people at work, school, little league, church, or 4-H Club who are hungry, even if we may not realize they are hungry," Glass said.

Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said Trump canceled the report rather than allow it to show hunger increasing under his administration. 

“This follows the playbook of many non-democracies that cancel or manipulate reports that would otherwise show less-than-perfect news," he wrote on social media.