2 in 5 households in Houston and Harris County are food insecure, according to study

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — It’s becoming harder for more Houstonians to put food on the table.

A recent study from Rice’s Kinder Institute found that about 2 in 5 households in Houston and Harris County are food insecure.

The freeze in SNAP benefits due to the government shutdown, along with rising food prices, is ultimately squeezing budgets.

During this time, several nonprofits are stepping up to try to keep people’s fridges full.

At first glance, the aisles inside Northwest Assistance Ministries’ Nutrition Center look like any other grocery store, but the food is free, and the shopping carts are going out to people who may not otherwise get it without this help.

“This is where we help our neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity,” NAM’s President and CEO Nadine Scamp said.

Scamp said they’ve been doing this for more than four decades.

“Food insecurity is really both a lack of access to nutritional food options, and we see that with our neighbors that maybe have a lack of transportation, or they don’t have a grocery store that is near them,” Scamp said. “It is our neighbors that don’t have the means to be able to pay for food, and so they go hungry.”

Scamp said they typically serve about 70 families a day. However, she said that the number over the last few weeks is closer to the triple digits, jumping to 90 families a day.

“With the impacts to SNAP benefits, with our federal workers, we are definitely seeing an increase in calls for assistance and calls from people who maybe haven’t requested assistance before,” Scamp said.

The nutrition center calls northwest Harris County home. They serve the Spring/Klein area all the way over to the George Bush Airport and down through the Greenspoint neighborhoods.

“We do have a number of areas that are food deserts, where we have concentrations of lower economic status,” Scamp said.

The ZIP code near Bush Airport had the highest percentage of families receiving SNAP benefits at 39%, according to 2023 U.S. Census data.

“North County (was) the area that (was) identified as having the highest rates of food insecurity, which is not surprising because those are predominantly Black or Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods,” said Luz Garcini with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

Garcini said their recent study found 80% of households in the Greenspoint and IAH neighborhood struggle with food insecurity.

“We are talking about families who have jobs and who are employed and still report high rates of food insecurity, which means even if they work, their salaries are not enough to get them out of that,” Garcini said.

The shelves at NAM are trying to lighten that burden for families.

“Although we cannot possibly fill that entire gap, we’re trying our best as possible to meet the needs of as many neighbors as we can,” Scamp said.