Hunger is back to pandemic levels where 25% of San Diegans can’t access 3 nutritious meals a day. Learn more from our latest Issue Brief.
More than 1 in 4 people in San Diego County are nutrition insecure.
San Diego Hunger Coalition estimates that, as of June 2026, more than 1 in 4 (25%) San Diegans experience nutrition insecurity, or are unable to provide three nutritious meals per day for themselves and/or their families with their own income. This officially marks two years of elevated nutrition insecurity (at or above 25%) as San Diego families struggle to afford their basic needs.
Out of the 835,000 total people estimated to be nutrition insecure in San Diego County, 203,000 of them are children, 194,000 are older adults (age 60+), and 147,000 of them are living with disabilities.
Please cite this page as: San Diego Hunger Coalition. June 2026 Data Release & Analysis. San Diego, CA; August 2026. For additional information, including methodology, maps, and data tables, please visit www.sdhunger.org/research.
Food Assistance: The hunger relief sector provided 26 million meals in food assistance in June.
In June 2026, the hunger relief sector in San Diego County provided ~26 million meals across all programs, meeting an incredible 93% of the estimated need (including 59% of self-purchased meals).
Of the nearly 26M meals that were provided, 15M (58%) meals came from CalFresh, followed by school and youth meals, food banks and pantries, WIC, and meals for older adults. The pie chart below shows the breakdown in more detail.
Meal Gap: Another 5.4M meals would have been needed for a hunger free region
Despite the millions of meals that came from food assistance in June, the county was still short by 5.5 million meals. The gap is 32% higher than in March 2026, when it stood at 4.1 million, meaning thousands of families around the county went hungry, with areas such as San Diego (University City), Escondido and Oceanside all having meal gaps of more than 300,000 meals each. To see a map of the meal gap and other data points, click here.
The Hunger Coalition has also identified an additional ~195,000 people who are likely eligible for CalFresh but not yet enrolled, showing great potential to reduce the meal gap by increasing CalFresh participation in San Diego County. This is particularly important given the state enrollment data show that CalFresh caseload has been declining; enrollment peaked at 403,202 people in December 2024 and has fallen to 364,314 by June 2026, a drop of about ~10% since the peak.
Despite the HR1 induced changes to CalFresh eligibility, whereby between 67,000 to 96,000 San Diego families have already started losing their ability to recertify for CalFresh, enrolling eligible families is the best way to decrease hunger and mitigate the effects of the loss of the federal funding. If all CalFresh eligible people were enrolled, it would provide another 8M meals to the county per month, erasing the meal gap in most months and providing an additional $67 million in economic activity to our region. For more information on where likely eligible populations are and for CalFresh participation numbers, click here.
Nutrition Security and Equity
Nutrition insecurity also disproportionately impacts Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. The nutrition insecurity rates of some of these communities are all above the average, as can be seen below.
24% of the Native population
19% of the White population
19% of the Asian population
35% of the Hispanic/Latinx population (across all nationalities)
36% of the Black population
Additional analysis of the nutrition insecure population shows that Hispanic/Latino people make up 35% of the county population, yet they constitute 49% of the nutrition insecure population, which is the largest disparity by race/ethnicity in our region. Data on race/ethnicity is annual, currently estimating San Diego County in 2024.
Methodology
These estimates come from SDHC’s analysis of the estimated population at risk of nutrition insecurity. We define this population as households with incomes below 225% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) ($72,000 for a family of 4). For the meal gap calculations, we track food assistance data gathered from local agencies and nonprofit partners, with ongoing recommendations from the Hunger Free San Diego Advisory Board. To discuss our detailed methodology please contact us at info@sdhunger.org.