For many Harris County households with children, the question isn’t just what’s for dinner. It’s whether there will be enough healthy food to go around.
A new Kinder Institute for Urban Research report shows half of Harris County families with children struggled to consistently put affordable, nutritious food on the table during a 12-month stretch spanning 2023 and 2024, a figure nearly triple the national estimate and higher than that of local households without children.
The results suggest hundreds of thousands of Harris County households with children sometimes lack healthy food at home, highlighting ongoing vulnerability as families navigate recent declines in federal food assistance.
Between December 2024 and July 2026, about 160,000 fewer Harris County residents were approved for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s primary avenue for providing food benefits. That represents a 24% decline. About 84,500 fewer children under the age of 18 received approval.
“Food insecurity is a continuum of hardship over the last 12 months,” said Sejal Mistry, a researcher with the Kinder Institute’s Center for Community and Public Health and the report’s lead author.
“It might mean worrying about running out of food, having to cut back on fresh food or skipping a meal. The experiences can look different, but the underlying issue is the same: Families are struggling to consistently meet their food needs, and that’s a problem that we should all care about.”
The latest Kinder Institute findings on food insecurity are based on responses from over 5,200 Harris County residents who participated in the spring 2024 Greater Houston Community Panel survey. About 1,850 residents lived with children under age 18 at the time. Results were weighted to reflect Harris County’s demographics.
Respondents were asked seven questions from a widely used survey about their level of access to food in the prior year, such as whether they could afford balanced meals or ate less than they felt they should because there wasn’t enough money for food.
About one-quarter of respondents were classified as “moderately food insecure” after responding affirmatively on two to four questions. Another quarter of survey takers were deemed “highly food insecure” by responding affirmatively to five to seven questions.
The national estimate of food insecurity prevalence among families with children — about 18% — derives from an 18-item federal survey. The seven-question survey has been validated and shown to measure food insecurity at the same level as the 18-question survey, though differences in survey questions, sampling methods and other methodological approaches should be considered when comparing local and national estimates.
Who’s going hungry
The survey results show families across Harris County routinely face food-related hardships, with certain types of households most vulnerable to food insecurity.
Lower income was strongly associated with food insecurity, with 68% of households with children earning less than $35,000 a year reporting food insecurity. Among households earning $35,000 to $74,999, half of those with children were deemed food insecure.
Across income brackets, households with children were more likely to be food insecure than those without kids.
“Raising children is expensive, and the data from this report reflect that,” Mistry said. “When you have children in the household, income has to stretch across more mouths and more needs. If we only focused on the lowest-income households, we would miss families who may have a higher household income but are still trying to balance food with the many other costs that come with raising children.”
Geographic patterns of insufficient food access largely tracked with income levels. Several of the neighborhood areas with the highest estimates of food insecurity — led by Greenspoint & IAH (80%), Pasadena & Hobby (58%), Greater Spring & Aldine West (57%), and Northside & Eastex (53%) — rank among the lowest-income areas in Harris County.
Household makeup also plays a modest but notable role in food-insecurity prevalence.
Nearly two-thirds of households with three or more children reported food insecurity, as did about half of households with two children and 44% of families with one child.
Single-adult households also reported a bigger food-insecurity burden, with nearly 3 in 5 classified as food insecure. Nearly half of two-adult households hit the threshold. While larger households often struggle because their income has to stretch across more mouths, Mistry noted that single-adult households face the strain of relying on just one income stream.
“When there’s only one adult in the household, they’re trying to make sure their children have what they need,” Mistry said. “It can be an isolating experience for those who don’t have another adult to rely on but still must manage a way to get by.”
An appetite for change
Kinder Institute researchers said the findings speak to the importance of maintaining access to food assistance while addressing other pressures that affect families, including the costs of housing, childcare, and healthcare.
Local food banks have reported increased demand in recent months as new federal laws have tightened access to SNAP benefits.
Kids’ Meals CEO Beth Braniff Harp, whose Houston nonprofit delivers free meals to children under 5 across 56 local ZIP codes, said many families her organization serves have adults who work one or more jobs. But rising costs have outpaced their wages, an imbalance that often forces parents to choose between paying bills and buying healthy food, she said.
In addition to providing meals, the organization partners with businesses and other nonprofits to offer job-skills training and financial literacy classes, with the goal of breaking generational cycles of poverty.
“Food is the emergency relief, but it’s not the answer,” Harp said. “It’s like the first handshake that builds trust. The answer is empowering people with the tools they need to increase their wages and the skills they need to pass down to their children.”
Kinder Institute researchers also recommended stronger coordination among food banks, healthcare providers, school districts and government agencies, particularly in neighborhoods where food insecurity is most heavily concentrated.
“Behind that 50% are real families, caregivers and children navigating these challenges,” Mistry said. “We know food insecurity is high, and we can see that it affects different types of families and different parts of Harris County. The goal now is to understand what is driving those differences so we can move from understanding the problem to working together as a community to address it.”
