Eating Well (When You Can): Food Security Among Stateside Puerto Ricans

The percentage of food secure Puerto Rican households has consistently been the lowest, even when compared to Hispanics overall. Figure 1 presents trends in food security among different racial/ethnic groups in the US, from 2005 through 2014. The figure displays CPS-FSS data grouped across three year groups, denoting the situation before, during and after the Great Recession of 2008, providing a picture of how these different groups were affected by the changing economic circumstances, as well as the latest data point (2014). As expected, there was an overall decline in the percentage of food secure households between 200507 and 2008-10. While there are hints of recovery for most groups, the level of food security among Puerto Ricans has remained virtually unchanged after 2010 (Fig. 1). The disparity is greatest when Puerto Ricans are compared to White Non-Hispanic homes. While 81% of White Non-Hispanic homes were classified as food secure, this was the case for only 52% of Puerto Rican homes.1 Food security among Puerto Rican households is low. Food security is defined as having “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life” (1). Conversely, food insecurity implies limited or uncertain access to healthy foods (1).