The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that it is ceasing publication of its annual Household Food Security surveys, which track how many Americans struggle to access food.

But the USDA’s announcement to end what it called “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” surveys comes as hunger and food insecurity continue to worsen nationwide and especially in Nevada. 

Compounding these issues is the fact that Nevada lacks a clear central authority on food insecurity and is overly reliant on federal dollars and data, according to a new report on food insecurity and the “shifting federal funding landscapes” exclusively shared with The Nevada Independent by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Guinn Center for Policy Priorities think tank. 

The report cited 2023 data from Feeding America, which found that 15 percent of Nevadans — or nearly 482,000 people — experience food insecurity, a little higher than the national average of 14 percent. One in 4 Nevada children are food insecure, also above the national average. 

The USDA and Feeding America say people are food insecure when they do not have “access, at all times, to enough food for a healthy or active lifestyle” and are unsure of where one’s next meal will come from.

Higher rates of food insecurity occur in Nevada’s rural counties such as Nye and Esmeralda, where geographic isolation limits access to healthy and fresh food — and can lead to long-term health challenges, according to the USDA.

Sabina Malik, a UNR professor who chairs the nonprofit Southern Nevada Food Council, said Nevada lacks “a strategic or systemic approach to data” and relies on surveys from USDA and nonprofits such as Feeding America. The loss of the USDA’s annual surveys will be “really bad,” she said, and recent federal actions tightening up food assistance requirements and cutting Biden-era programs that funded local food production and distribution don’t help either.

In their policy recommendations, the Guinn Center called on the state to appoint a clear and empowered authority to take the statewide lead on combating hunger. 

The responsibility is currently distributed across a tapestry of actors, with state and federal funds flowing to nonprofits, food pantries, local farmers and other groups. 

The state’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health includes an Office of Food Security, which oversees the Council on Food Security, a volunteer body initially formed in 2014 by then-Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and codified into state law in 2019.

But experts say that the state’s food security office and council operate more like coordinators and less like administrators. Beth Martino, CEO of the nonprofit Three Square, the largest food distributor in Southern Nevada, told The Indy that the “short answer” is that “there is no single point of contact” on state efforts to address food insecurity. 

On its website, the council describes itself as providing a “platform … to make recommendations to state agencies on addressing food insecurity” and enhancing “connectivity among food security initiatives and partners.”

In 2023, the council published the Nevada Food Security Strategic Plan, which outlined best practices to strengthen food access. One recommendation was to increase Nevada’s investment in local farms and to connect rural populations to more food options. 

But the plan did not explicitly grant an agency or person the responsibility for implementing its goals. Instead, it described the plan as a resource for “all entities to promote food security efforts across Nevada.” 

The Guinn Center’s report said spreading the responsibility has hampered the plan’s effectiveness. 

After the plan was issued, the Council on Food Security began “pushing community members to be the ones to enact it,” said Lyndsey Langsdale, director of the nonprofit urban farm Reno Food Systems and a contributor to the 2023 plan. “But without any coordination? We were all just going to keep on doing what we do.” 

At the time of publication, the Office of Food Security and Council on Food Security had not responded to The Nevada Independent’s request for comment. 

Malik, the UNR professor, is a member of the state’s volunteer Council on Food Security. She said the group’s formation in 2014 was a move in the right direction, but that “so many different chaotic priorities” on combating hunger makes it difficult for the council to pursue a single, top-down strategy. 

One of the top priorities of the Southern Nevada Food Council, an independent council which Malik chairs, is finding a way to require state or regional authorities to protect Nevadans from hunger. 

“If you look at the way Vegas grows, developers come in and make plans for neighborhoods and have to think about access to school and health care,” Malik explained. “But there are hardly any conditions or guidance for food access. A regional authority on food policy would be able to require new areas or new developments to make sure that food is accessible.”  

States such as Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York have agencies dedicated to combating food insecurity — but empower them with greater enforcement abilities than in Nevada. 

Federal cuts and statewide impact

In March, The Indy reported that President Donald Trump suspended federal emergency food assistance programs slated to deliver 1.3 million pounds of food to Nevada food banks. The same month, the administration slashed a billion-dollar investment in local food programs around the country initially announced by President Joe Biden in December 2024, money that would have provided food-insecure families with produce from Nevada farmers. 

This year, Congress also changed the funding requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which currently provides benefits to more than 500,000 individuals in Nevada — roughly one-sixth of the state’s population. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill passed in July, Nevada will need to either contribute tens of millions dollars more to continue current services, or find ways to reduce the SNAP population by reducing benefits.

Read more: 1 in 6 Nevadans get food stamps. Many may lose benefits under Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill.'

The USDA declined to provide comment to The Indy on the funding cuts for the local food assistance programs, citing ongoing litigation.

Jocelyn Lantrip runs the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, a major food distributor that provided 19 million meals last year. She told The Nevada Independent that the slashed programs were moving the state closer towards a sustainable food system that revolved around local producers of fruits, vegetables and meats. 

The current food economy relies largely on grocery chains or corner stores, selling food that sometimes travels hundreds of miles before being sold. 

“There’s this idea that the food system isn’t broken because the trucks show up, and then there’s food,” said Kelli Kelly, who studies food systems for the Nevada Small Business Development Center. “You can go into the grocery store and buy any ingredient you want without thinking about seasonality or where products are coming from. It creates an illusion of stability.” 

The goal of replacing traditional food options with regionally grown and organic alternatives is to “make the healthy choice the easy choice,” Malik said. “When people walk to their corner store, they should be able to get real ingredients for their dinner that night.”

Kelly and Malik said that boosting the state’s food economy was easier under the last presidential administration.

Kelly pointed to the Regional Food Business Centers program launched in 2022, which provided Nevada millions of dollars in support for the local food economy. In July 2025, the Trump administration announced the program would end on Sept. 15.

“That was a first-ever, transformative investment,” Kelly said. “Now it’s no more. And it’s hugely demoralizing, after feeling like this program was acknowledging that local and regional food systems need to be better resourced by the federal government.” 

The Biden administration’s 2024 pledge of $1.1 billion more in funding for local food programs would also have supported Home Feeds Nevada, established by the Legislature in 2021. Under the program, the state Department of Agriculture purchased and distributed food grown in-state, supporting Nevada farmers while connecting residents with healthier meals.

Lantrip said that the Home Feeds Nevada program was “a shining star” for food access. 

Earlier this year, the Legislature allocated $800,000 to Home Feeds Nevada — well short of the $8 million in federal assistance promised by Biden. 

“That will keep Home Feeds running at a very, very small level,” said Kelly.

Martino, the CEO of Three Square, cautioned that of the 50 million pounds of food her organization distributed last year, only 1 million came from the Home Feeds program. 

“The federal changes might not affect the food we’re distributing or where the food comes from. But the overall quantity of food we have to give to families may be much less,” Martino said. 

Martino also emphasized that having a single point of contact on food insecurity in the state government would not “necessarily change anything” about the state’s response, since “federal funding really dictates how the state’s agencies get involved.” 

Federal support for nutrition programs is the backbone of most states’ approaches towards hunger. Feeding America has found that for every one meal food banks can provide, SNAP provides nine more. 

Losing this federal funding is unsustainable, Martino and Lantrip stressed, even if the state were to step up and embrace a more authoritative role.

But Kelly framed the problem through the lens of adaptation. 

“Those of us who work in the food system, we walk this path and frequently feel disappointed,” she said. “The result is, OK, let’s figure out other ways to continue doing this.”