Fairfax County is seeing a rise in food insecurity, with nearly 27% of households struggling to afford enough nutritious food, the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) found in its 2024 Hunger Report.
Though food insecurity has increased across all income levels, the sharpest growth has been among middle-income households earning between $100,000 and $150,000 annually. For those families, the cost of living in Fairfax County and rising prices for essentials like housing and food have outpaced wage growth.
“A family today can afford almost 10% less on their incomes than they could four years ago,” Capital Area Food Bank CEO Radha Muthiah told FFXnow. “And so that is what we’re seeing as the drivers that really have caused people who, again, may not have been food insecure a couple of years ago, now be unable to make ends meet and need assistance in putting nutritious food on their tables.”
Impact of inflation
According to the report, which looks at food insecurity across the D.C. region, inflation has been a critical driving factor in Fairfax County.
The number of people affected has jumped 24% to 27% of the population since 2023. That translates to about 256,000 people, including 8,000 children and 24,000 seniors, in a county of 1.38 million residents.
Food prices in the D.C. metro area have surged 22.6% since 2020, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showing an average annual increase of 5.7% per year between May 2020 and May 2024.
Rising food costs are hitting household budgets harder than any other type of inflation, and more people are feeling the impact. A total of 64% of D.C. area residents said higher food prices have significantly affected their finances, up from 52% last year.
For some families, the situation is dire. More than half of the region’s food-insecure households include children, and many parents skip meals to ensure their children can eat.
“Even though the increases in inflation were smaller this year than in prior years, they come on the backs of a 15% increase overall in basic necessities,” Muthiah said. “…The average wage growth in our area was [7.5%] over the last four-year period, where the average increase in consumer prices was 18-plus percent. So, you see that difference…is the reduction in purchasing power for a family.”
Rising housing costs contribute to food insecurity
The rising cost of housing has also been a significant driver of food insecurity, with 43% of respondents across the D.C. area identifying housing costs as their biggest financial burden, per the report.
Among those who reported being food insecure, 69% said higher-than-usual housing prices had a major impact on their budget over the past year, compared to just 32% of those who are food-secure.
According to Zillow, the average home price in Fairfax has risen nearly 7% since 2023, reaching $753,068. Meanwhile, median rent prices have fluctuated between $2,400 and almost $3,000. As of September, the median rent was $2,681 — 28% higher than the national median.
As housing prices soar, many families, particularly in high-cost areas like Fairfax County, are left with less disposable income for essential items like groceries, says Muthiah.
CAFB distributed 11,469,776 meals in Fairfax County during fiscal year 2024, a 16% jump from the 9.9 million meals provided the previous year. That’s an increase of 1.5 million meals.
The end of emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, among other forms of pandemic relief, led to an average reduction of $173 per household in monthly benefits, per the report.
Middle-income households are increasingly falling through the cracks of federal assistance programs, as they earn too much to qualify for aid but not enough to cover rising living costs.
“185% of the poverty line is where most of these programs sort of have their cutoff, but we know that food insecurity exists up to 300% in some cases, 400% of the poverty line,” Muthiah said.
Affordable housing has been a priority for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in recent years. Staff reported that approximately 4,000 units have been built, are planned, or are under construction since the board set a goal of 10,000 new affordable homes in 2022.
In July, the board voted to expand its workforce housing program, aiming to incentivize more affordable units in mixed-use centers like Tysons by granting developers more density.
Racial disparities persist
Racial disparities in food insecurity remain stark in Fairfax County and across the D.C. area.
Black and Latino households are two to three times more likely to experience food insecurity and face layoffs or reduced hours and wages compared to their white counterparts, per the report.
“In foundational economic categories such as wealth building, education and income, there exist deep disparities in outcomes by race, due to decades of systematically racist practices,” the report states.
Local efforts to combat food insecurity
Fairfax County has several programs aimed at addressing food insecurity, including partnerships with local food banks and nonprofit organizations like the CAFB.
The county has also bolstered efforts through initiatives like free and reduced-price school meals and local food agreements that connect farmers directly with food banks and nonprofits, but Muthiah says gaps in access remain.
“I would say one key thing that the county can continue to do is to be able to look at those students who are getting free or reduced meals and thinking about additional supports for those families because those are the very same families, in many instances, that are facing food insecurity,” she said.
The county could find ways to complement state and federal benefits, with programs like SNAP and the Emergency Food Assistance Program getting cut off at 185% of the poverty level, Muthiah added.
