Leaders from one of the largest hunger relief organizations in the St. Louis region says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent cancellation of its annual food insecurity report will do more harm than good.

The USDA on Sept. 20 announced it will no longer provide its Household Food Security Report in an effort to save money, stating that the “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.”

The report has been published annually for 30 years and is the largest study of food insecurity in the U.S., providing data on race, ethnicity, age and geographical locations of food deserts across the country. Around 40,000 households and families are interviewed for the assessment as federal, state and local organizations utilize the information to a

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