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 March 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 850,000 total people estimated to be nutrition insecure in San Diego County, 219,000 of them are children, 179,000 are older adults (age 60+), and 137,000 of them are living with disabilities.
Please cite this page as: San Diego Hunger Coalition. March 2026 Data Release & Analysis. San Diego, CA; May 2026. For additional information, including methodology, maps, and data tables, please visit www.sdhunger.org/research.
Food Assistance: The hunger relief sector provided 29 million meals in food assistance in March.
In March 2026, the hunger relief sector in San Diego County provided 29 million meals across all programs, meeting an incredible 88% of the estimated need for food assistance.
Of the 29M meals that were provided, 14.98M (52%) meals came from CalFresh, followed by school meals, food banks and pantries, WIC, and meals for older adults. The pie chart below shows the breakdown in more detail.
Meal Gap: Another 4.1M meals would have been needed for a hunger free region
Despite the millions of meals that came from food assistance in March, the county was still short by 4.1 million meals, meaning thousands of families around the county went hungry during the month, with areas such as University City, El Cajon, 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 190,000 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. Notably, state enrollment data show that more than 30,000 CalFresh enrollees have left the program since December 2024, increasing the monthly meal gap by one million meals per month.
Despite the coming attacks on 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 7.9M meals monthly to the county per month, erasing the meal gap in most months and providing an additional $63 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 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.