Overall, the report said more than 387,000 county residents \u2013 1 in 8 \u2013 were food insecure, meaning they spent at least part of the year not knowing if they would have access to three healthy meals in any given day.<\/p>\n
But those findings are based on old data. And, since then, a range of factors \u2013 persistent inflation, sluggish wage growth, new work-requirement rules to qualify for food benefits and medical insurance \u2013 have pushed even more families to try to stay fed by visiting food pantries and other sources of charitable nutrition, according to people who work with food nonprofits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know, from monitoring the use of our network, that demand is consistently going up,\u201d said Claudia Bonilla Keller, chief executive of Second Harvest Food Bank, which distributes food to more than 300 pantries in the county that, collectively, are feeding about 453,000 people a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the numbers in that report don\u2019t tell the whole story,\u201d she added, referencing the 2024 data.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worse right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
An obvious trigger is the rising price of food.<\/p>\n
![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OCR-L-SMFARM-0124-08-PB.jpg\")
Students from Santa Margarita Catholic High School pick cabbage during a service day in Irvine, CA on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. The farm provides food that is distributed through Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n
In the first 18 months after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly mid-2021 through the start of 2023, food prices in Southern California surged at rates not seen since the 1970s, a result of supply chain interruptions, pandemic-related federal spending that put money in people\u2019s pockets,\u00a0and a post-pandemic rebound in the job market. The trend slowed during the 2023-24 period studied in the Feeding America report, but it didn\u2019t end. From the start of 2023 through the end of 2024, the cost of food bought at grocery stores in Southern California jumped by 5.25%, according to federal data.<\/p>\n
Since then, the inflation surge \u2013 for food and for many other basics \u2013 has continued.<\/p>\n
In June, the overall price of food sold at grocery stores in Southern California was about 4.2% higher than it was in June 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor. Popular items like beef (up 11.8%) and vegetables (lettuce, up 32%; tomatoes, up 19.5%) have spiked, even as egg prices (which became shorthand for food inflation during the 2024 presidential campaign) fell back to earth (down more than 60%).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been hard to keep up with all the (changes) happening to food prices,\u201d said Jayvon Franklin, a 47-year-old eldercare nurse, as he pushed a grocery cart through the parking lot of an Irvine Albertsons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do it. We\u2019re OK, for now. But every single time I go in there,\u201d he said, laughing and nodding at the store behind him, \u201cit\u2019s more to get out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd after I leave here, I\u2019m going to get gas,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s gonna sting. It\u2019s not like anything is getting cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, the price of rent in Southern California has stabilized since the start of 2025, but even that has meant a roughly 2% increase. And local gasoline prices during that period have soared, jumping 28%.<\/p>\n
The result of all the hikes, for tens of thousands of local families, is hunger.<\/p>\n
Though state data<\/a> shows that the official poverty rate in Orange County is about 9.7%, that doesn\u2019t measure the broader level of hardship in a community where prices for virtually everything are among the highest in the country. A 2025 study<\/a> by Orange County United Way found that about 1 in 3 locals struggle to cover the basics, including gas, shelter and food.<\/p>\n And inflation is just part of the reason local hunger is on the rise.<\/p>\n Another factor pushing people toward food lines is the shifting landscape of federal assistance. Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies and spending in ways that, generally, make it tougher for poor people to access many types of assistance.<\/p>\n Trump and his supporters say the new rules are aimed at curtailing fraud, particularly assistance given to anybody who isn\u2019t eligible because they aren\u2019t a\u00a0legal\u00a0U.S. resident. They point to decades of federal assistance for health care and food and other basic needs and note that it\u2019s usually been a band-aid, not a cure.<\/p>\n Critics say the new rules \u2013 particularly those imposed under the 2025 spending package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act \u2013 are a simple case of cutting spending so that wealthy people can save money on taxes.<\/p>\n Whatever the goals, the result of many of those changes, so far, has been less federal help for people seeking to meet basic needs.<\/p>\n For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) wants to change spending rules in ways that, in Orange County, could push about 1,400 formerly homeless people<\/a> out of subsidized housing and back to the streets. On another front, new work-requirement rules to MediCal, the state\u2019s name for the federal health insurance program known as Medicaid, are projected to result in about 249,000 people<\/a> in Orange County losing health coverage over the next two years. Already, enrollment in CalOptima, the county program for tax-subsidized health care, has dropped by about 90,000 since the start of 2025.<\/p>\n People who don\u2019t have access to shelter or health care also tend to struggle with staying fed. And, on the food front, federal help is shrinking fast.<\/p>\n Since the start of last year, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the federal funding tool known locally as CalFresh, has changed dramatically<\/a>. New rules are redefining everything from who can get benefits, to the ages of people who must work or volunteer 20 hours a week or more to receive benefits, and even the stores that can sell to beneficiaries.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OCR-L-CALFRESH-0225-03mr.jpg\")
A Lake Forest woman shops for groceries at South County Outreach, a food distribution center, in Irvine on Friday, February 24, 2023. The additional emergency money CalFresh recipients were receiving as part of pandemic assistance is ending, meaning many OC residents will have less money to spend on feeding families. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n