Rates of food insecurity for low-income adults in the Bay Area have risen dramatically in the last two decades.
That’s according to data from the California Health Interview Survey, which annually polls more than 20,000 households in every county, statewide.
According to the survey, in the Bay Area's nine counties, food insecurity for adults who earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level has increased from nearly a quarter in 2001 to almost half in 2024.
The rise in food insecurity for low-income adults in the Bay Area reflects a similar trend seen statewide, where the numbers went from nearly 30 percent to about half for the same income group.
In the Bay Area, the counties of Sonoma, Napa, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, and San Mateo saw the greatest increases in food insecurity in the state for adults at the federal poverty level in 2024 compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, San Francisco and Marin counties were the only Bay Area counties to experience a drop in food insecurity rates from 2019 to 2024 for this income group. For example, food insecurity in San Francisco dropped by nearly half during that period.