When Data Disappears: What the USDA’s Move Means — and What GEO Can Do About It
- GEO
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would cancel its annual Household Food Security Report — a survey conducted for nearly 30 years that has served as one of the nation’s most authoritative tools to track how many households struggle to fully meet their food needs. Simultaneously, several federal economists and researchers at the USDA who worked on these studies were placed on indefinite administrative leave.
This move comes at a time of heightened vulnerability:
In 2023, about 13.5% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point.
Large cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were passed earlier in 2025, projected to disqualify millions from benefits.
Experts warn that without a consistent, transparent way to monitor food access, changes in hunger or nutritional stress might go hidden — especially in underserved communities.
For an organization like GEO (Grassroots Empowerment & Opportunity, for example), which works at the intersection of food access, community health, and infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods, this development is more than a policy footnote. It’s a wake-up call.
Why the USDA Decision Matters to GEO’s Mission
1.
Loss of a Key Metric for Accountability & Advocacy
The Household Food Security Report provided standardized, state-level data that policy advocates, nonprofits, and legislators have used to argue for funding, measure trends, and hold institutions accountable. Without it, we risk navigating blind. If we can’t quantify hunger, we can’t effectively advocate for correction.
2.
Greater Risk of Undetected Harm
When food assistance is cut, inflation rises, or local economies contract, the first casualties are often behind closed doors: families skipping meals, settling for low-nutrition options, or going without fruits and vegetables. With fewer data points, these subtler but serious harms might go uncounted — especially among marginalized communities GEO serves.
3.
Reduced Leverage in Negotiations
When GEO approaches municipal or state governments, or partnerships with foundations or corporate donors, data is power. Concrete numbers showing rising food insecurity or spatial disparities help strengthen our position. The absence of recent, credible federal reports could weaken our leverage.
4.
Increased Burden on Local Research & Monitoring
With the federal “gold standard” gone, local groups like GEO may need to pick up gaps in measurement — designing surveys, analyzing food access, conducting community audits. That requires resources, trust, and methodological rigor. But the alternative is risking that communities are simply left un-counted.
How GEO Can Lead & Protect Community Interests
Even in this challenging environment, GEO has critical opportunities to increase resilience, visibility, and impact. Below are six strategies:
Build Community-Powered Data Infrastructure
Conduct local household surveys, focus groups, and food access mapping in neighborhoods you serve.
Train community members as “data ambassadors” so that trust and accuracy stay rooted locally.
Forge Distributed Partnerships
Partner with universities, public health institutions, and civic tech organizations to co-design monitoring systems.
Leverage satellite imagery, mobile apps, or crowdsourced data to supplement human surveys (e.g. tracking “food deserts,” store prices, availability).
Translate Metrics into Stories & Action
Use data to personalize local narratives: families struggling, kids skipping meals, elders rationing.
Publish “community food security snapshots” annually to maintain external accountability and visibility.
Advocate for Legislative or Policy Safeguards
Push for state-level or municipal mandates requiring local food security reporting (akin to the federal model).
Engage legislators and stakeholders using data you collect to influence budgets for food assistance, healthy food zones, and anti-hunger infrastructure.
Strengthen Alliances with the Anti-Hunger Ecosystem
Alliance with food banks, faith groups, health systems, and racial equity groups to coalesce around shared metrics, share data, and amplify collective voice.
Use joint dashboards or “food observatories” to monitor regional trends.
Secure Flexible Funding for Measurement & Research
Make measurement and monitoring a core budgetary priority.
Seek grants explicitly earmarked for evaluation, community-based participatory research, and capacity building — not just service delivery.
How GEO’s Work Could Help Reverse “Data Disappearance”
By leading in local data collection and interpretation, GEO can fill the void left by the USDA’s decision — perhaps setting a new model for how grassroots organizations become authoritative sources of accountability. In doing so, GEO can:
Ensure that community needs don’t vanish from public consciousness.
Bring visibility to how federal policy shifts (like SNAP cuts or incentives) actually play out on the ground.
Maintain legitimacy in advocacy, bringing hard numbers to tables where tradition and relationships often dominate.
Help communities become less dependent on external monitoring systems, more resilient and empowered in crafting their future.
Closing Thoughts: The Stakes Are Too High to Let Data Vanish
Cancelling a decades-old survey and sidelining the researchers who produced it signals a broader shift: an effort to control narratives and erase inconvenient truths. But hunger doesn’t wait for government permissions. Prices rise, families struggle, and children go without while the machinery of oversight falls silent.
For GEO — and for every justice-minded organization — the task now is clear: we must become the eyes, ears, and watchdog of our communities. We must ensure that even if the federal government stops counting, the people still count.
We measure because we matter.
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