Panetta Leads Bipartisan Call for Increased Support to Address Hunger in the Military
Washington, DC – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) led a bipartisan coalition of over 50 Members of Congress in urging the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to prioritize funding in the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bill to combat food insecurity among military servicemembers and their families.
Despite steps taken by Congress, including the creation of the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) and the expansion of eligibility thresholds, new data makes clear that hunger remains a persistent and widespread issue for military households. A recent follow-up report by the RAND Corporation confirmed that 25% of active-duty personnel across all branches of the military remain food insecure, with the overwhelming majority being mid-career and junior enlisted servicemembers.
“Food insecurity among servicemembers and their families has been a longstanding concern for the United States Armed Forces,” wrote the Members. “We respectfully request your partnership as we continue efforts to support around 287,000 servicemembers struggling to put food on their dinner tables. With last year’s defense budget of $850 billion, providing the capacity to purchase adequate nutritious meals for our military personnel and their families, especially ones with dependents, should not only be feasible, but a top priority. We owe it to our troops to take care of their basic needs.
The letter points out that previous reports significantly underestimated the scope of food insecurity in the military, and emphasizes that this crisis impacts not just individual servicemembers, but military families and their children. Signers of the letter are requesting the Committee’s partnership in ensuring appropriate funding and continued oversight to address this systemic issue.
Additional signers of the letter include; Blake D. Moore (UT-1), Don Bacon (NE-2), Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), Jen A. Kiggans (VA-2), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Danny K. Davis (IL-7), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Maggie Goodlander (NH-2), Cory Mills (FL-7), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Michael R. Turner (OH-10), Gabe Vasquez (NM-2), Seth Moulton (MA-6), Richard E. Neal (MA-1), Joe Courtney (CT-2), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Steven Horsford (NV-4), William R. Keating (MA-9), Chris Pappas (NH-1), Donald G. Davis (NC-1), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Brittany Pettersen (CO-7), Seth Magaziner (RI-2), Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-8), Jill Tokuda (HI-2), Jennifer L. McClellan (VA-4), André Carson (IN-7), Kimberlyn King-Hinds (MI-AL), Ted W. Lieu (CA-36), Sarah McBride (DE-AL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24), Morgan McGarvey (KY-3), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Dave Min (CA-47), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Dwight Evans (PA-3), Jonathan L. Jackson (IL-1), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), James P. McGovern (MA-2), Julie Johnson (TX-32), Laura Friedman (CA-44), Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr. (CA-31), Rick Larsen (WA-2), Shomari Figures (AL-2), Patrick Ryan (NY-18), Bradley Scott Schneider (IL-10), Stephen F. Lynch (MA-8), and J. Luis Correa (CA-46).
Full letter can be found here and below.
Dear Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum,
As you prepare the Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), we respectfully request strong support for funds to address food insecurity among our military personnel and their families. Updated analysis indicates that nearly 25% of active-duty service members are considered food insecure, which is over twice as much as previous estimates indicated. For the past five years, the United States Congress has advocated for new and increased measures to assist our personnel facing food insecurity in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While Congress established the Basic Needs Allowance in the FY22 NDAA, and lifted the Federal Poverty Limit to qualify for BNA from 150% to 200% in the FY25 NDAA, more measures are needed to improve our military families’ access to nutritious meals.
Food insecurity among servicemembers and their families has been a longstanding concern for the United States Armed Forces. In response, Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to report on food insecurity among Members of the Armed Forces and their dependents in the FY20 NDAA. In July 2022, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness released new analysis suggesting that previous assessments of food insecurity among the Armed Forces may have underestimated the scale of military hunger. Rather than the 0.1% of the force previously identified as food insecure, the updated analysis showed that 24% of all active-duty servicemembers, or approximately 286,800 personnel, experienced food insecurity in 2020 and 2021. More recently, the RAND Corporation produced a follow-on report to its 2023 report entitled, “Food Insecurity in the U.S. Military.” RAND’s newest findings reconfirm that 25% of personnel in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard were food insecure.3 Of that, nearly 70% were mid-career enlisted personnel in grades E-4 to E-6, while the remaining majority were junior-enlisted in grades E-1 to E-3.
In 2023, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees expressed concern over the impact of hunger on the entire family, after studies indicated that one in eight military families were food insecure prior to 2020, and had since grown to one in five. Findings from the Defense Department’s Survey of Active Duty Spouses, released in 2023, found that 31% of junior enlisted spouses are food insecure, and almost half comprise E1- E4 ranks. Food insecurity gripping both heads of a household will have considerable consequences for the livelihoods and longevity of our military personnel and the next generation of military children. The recent reports from RAND and the Defense Department make this clear to the point where Congress can no longer question the prevalence of military hunger.
We respectfully request your partnership as we continue efforts to support around 287,000 servicemembers struggling to put food on their dinner tables. With last year’s defense budget of $850 billion, providing the capacity to purchase adequate nutritious meals for our military personnel and their families, especially ones with dependents, should not only be feasible, but a top priority. We owe it to our troops to take care of their basic needs. Sincerely,
Sincerely,
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