Nearly Half Of Maryland Families Face Food Insufficiency, Maryland Food Bank Finds

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Nearly half of Maryland families said their children were sometimes or often not eating enough food because of high costs, according to a new study from the Maryland Food Bank.

The organization analyzed U.S. Census data and determined 45% of families said they were sometimes not giving enough food to their children because it's too expensive.

In February 2022, nearly 10% of respondents said their children were "often not eating enough because the household 'just couldn't afford enough food," the group said in its report titled "A Research Guide to Child Food Insufficiency."

The news comes months after the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit Program, which provided monthly assistance of $300 per child to families across the country, including 1.1 million families in Maryland.

The food bank's research indicates that the expanded Child Tax Credit program made a significant difference in helping struggling families, as exactly half of Maryland households that received the payments used the extra cash for food, according to the census data.