Updated December 2025
Food is a basic human need, yet millions of people around the world do not have reliable access to enough safe, nutritious food. This is known as food insecurity—a global crisis with devastating consequences, particularly for children.
On this page, we'll explore what food insecurity means, what causes it, how it affects people and communities, and what can be done to tackle it.
Saadia*, 21, feeding food paste to her daughter Aisha*, 2, as part of her treatment for malnutrition, Wajir, Kenya.
What is food insecurity?
Food insecurity exists when people lack consistent access to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life. It's not simply about going hungry - it's about the uncertainty of where your next meal will come from, whether you can afford the food you need, and whether that food will provide adequate nutrition.
An estimated 318 million people across 67 countries face acute food insecurity. This means their lives and livelihoods are at immediate risk.
Food insecurity differs from hunger. Hunger describes the physical sensation of needing food, while food insecurity describes the broader system failure that prevents families from accessing adequate nutrition. A household experiencing food insecurity might have food some days but not others, or might only afford foods lacking essential nutrients children need to grow and develop.
The consequences are particularly severe for children. When young bodies and brains don't receive proper nutrition, the effects can last a lifetime—affecting their physical growth, mental development, and ability to learn and thrive.
Causes of Food Insecurity
Food insecurity rarely has a single cause. Instead, overlapping crises create conditions where families cannot access or afford the food they need.
Poverty
When household income falls short, food is often the first necessity families must compromise on. Rising living costs mean even working families sometimes struggle to afford balanced, nutritious meals. In low-income countries, families spend a big proportion of their income on food, leaving them extremely vulnerable to price increases.
Economic instability—including unemployment, currency depreciation, and inflation—pushes food beyond reach for millions. About 1.1 billion children globally—almost half of the world's children—cannot afford a balanced diet.
Conflict and War
Conflict remains the biggest driver of food insecurity globally. 70% of people facing acute hunger live in areas affected by war and violence.
Armed conflict devastates food systems in multiple ways. It forces families from their homes and farmland, destroys essential infrastructure like roads and markets, disrupts agricultural production, and cuts communities off from humanitarian assistance. In some cases, starvation is deliberately used as a weapon of warfare.
Children living in conflict zones are more than twice as likely to suffer from malnutrition as those in peaceful settings.
In Sudan, where conflict has raged since 2023, 11.6 million children are facing crisis levels of hunger.
In Gaza, children are starving, and a famine has been officially declared in parts of the Gaza strip. Over 100 children have died from starvation.
Climate Change
The climate crisis is fundamentally reshaping global food security. Extreme weather events—including drought, flooding, cyclones, and heatwaves—are destroying crops, decimating livestock, and forcing communities from their land.
Approximately 1 billion children (four in five globally) live in areas experiencing at least one extreme climate event annually.
The number of climate-related disasters has increased fivefold over the past 50 years. Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are making farming increasingly unpredictable, while rising sea levels threaten fishing and agricultural communities.
Economic Instability
Global economic shocks reverberate through food systems. When fuel prices rise, transport costs increase, making food more expensive. Currency fluctuations can suddenly make imported food unaffordable. Market disruptions—whether from pandemic lockdowns or trade restrictions—create food shortages and price spikes.
These economic pressures hit the poorest families hardest, forcing impossible choices between food, medicine, housing, and other essentials.
Poor Infrastructure
Inadequate roads, limited cold storage, and unreliable electricity make it difficult to transport and preserve food, particularly in rural areas. When infrastructure fails, food rots before reaching markets, prices rise, and communities become isolated from supply chains.
Weak healthcare and water systems compound the problem. Without access to clean water and sanitation, children face higher rates of disease, which both causes and worsens malnutrition.
Where is Food Insecurity Most Severe?
Food insecurity affects every region, but some areas face catastrophic conditions.
Sudan has famine detected in at least five areas, with 11.6 million children are facing crisis levels of hunger.
Gaza faces unfolding famine conditions for the entire population. More than 930,000 children—nearly every child in Gaza—are at risk of famine. Mounting evidence shows widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving hunger-related deaths. Over 100 children have already died from starvation.
Afghanistan has nearly 3.5 million children under five experiencing acute malnutrition. The loss of funding has already led to the closure of 18 health facilities supported by Save the Children and its partner. Only 14 Save the Children clinics have enough funding to remain open for one more month, and without new financial support, they will be forced to close. These 32 clinics supported over 134,000 children in January alone.
Somalia has 1.8 million children under five estimated to experience acute malnutrition this year. At least 55,000 children supported by Save the Children in Somalia[1] will lose access to life-saving nutrition services by June, as the reduction in foreign aid force 121 Save the Children-supported nutrition centers to close.
Other countries facing severe food crises include Yemen, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Haiti, Myanmar, Mali, and Kenya.
Evelin, two, eating a mango outside her home in Balaka district, Malawi. Save the Children's Maziko programme is tackling the chronic child malnutrition that is a nationwide problem in Malawi.
A collaboration between Save the Children and Boromi, the new Wonderpacks are sent to families alongside our Early Years grant.
Food Insecurity in the UK
Food insecurity isn't only a distant crisis—it affects families across the UK. 4.5 million children in the UK are growing up in poverty.
Food bank use continues at historically high levels, with families struggling to afford basic groceries amid rising costs. Food insecurity in the UK often results from inadequate social security support, low wages that don't cover living costs, and the cumulative impact of rising energy, housing, and food prices.
UK families experiencing food insecurity face daily decisions between heating and eating, often cutting meal sizes or skipping meals entirely. Children in food-insecure households may arrive at school hungry, affecting their concentration, behaviour, and educational attainment.
The Impact of Food Insecurity
Immediate Effects on Children
Even a few days without proper food affects children profoundly. They lose energy, struggle to concentrate and learn, and may become anxious and upset. Their bodies begin consuming stored fat for energy, appetite decreases, and weight loss begins.
After two weeks of inadequate nutrition, physical deterioration accelerates. The heart, liver, and kidneys weaken, infection risk increases, and the body begins breaking down muscle tissue to survive.
Long-Term Health Consequences
Chronic food insecurity causes stunting—when children fail to grow to their expected height—which affects nearly 150 million children globally. Stunting reflects not just inadequate calories but insufficient essential nutrients during critical developmental periods.
Severe acute malnutrition affects 13.6 million children globally and contributes to one in five deaths among children under five—approximately one million child deaths annually.
Malnourished children are 11 times more likely to die from common illnesses like pneumonia, diarrhoea, or malaria than well-nourished children. Their weakened immune systems cannot fight off infections that would normally be treatable.
Educational Impact
Hungry children cannot learn effectively. Food insecurity is associated with lower academic achievement, higher absence rates, and increased behavioural problems. When families cannot afford food, children may be withdrawn from school to work or to reduce household expenses.
Globally, at least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024—approximately 35 children every minute.
Family and Community Effects
Food insecurity forces families into impossible choices. Some parents withdraw children from school to work. In some contexts, families may push girls into early marriage to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Children from displaced families experience dangerous surges in child labour, forced marriage, school dropout, and trafficking.
Women and girls account for up to 60% of the world's food-insecure population. When food is scarce, they often eat last and least.
How Can Food Insecurity Be Addressed?
Immediate Interventions
Emergency food assistance saves lives during crises. Cash transfers allow families to purchase food and other essentials, preserving dignity and supporting local economies. Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)—high-energy, nutrient-dense paste—treats severe acute malnutrition effectively, with over 90% recovery rates when accessible.
Community-based screening helps identify malnourished children early, before conditions become life-threatening. Mobile health clinics bring treatment to remote or conflict-affected areas.
Long-Term Solutions
Sustainable food security requires addressing root causes. Strengthening agricultural systems helps communities grow more food despite climate challenges. Supporting smallholder farmers with seeds, tools, training, and market access builds resilience.
Social protection systems—including child benefits and school feeding programmes—help families maintain food access during economic shocks. Investing in water infrastructure and sanitation prevents disease that worsens malnutrition.
Anticipatory Action
Rather than waiting for crises, anticipatory action uses early warning systems to trigger assistance before disasters fully unfold. When drought forecasts indicate high risk, providing cash, livestock feed, or seeds before crops fail helps families protect their livelihoods and maintain food access.
Policy Changes
Tackling food insecurity requires political will to address conflict, climate change, and inequality. Governments must fully fund humanitarian response plans, increase flexible funding for nutrition programmes, and invest in early warning and preparedness systems.
International cooperation is essential—no single country or organisation can solve this crisis alone. Stronger collaboration between humanitarian, development, peace, and climate actors can deliver more effective, coordinated responses.
Rashel lives with his mother Rashida and father in Sylhet, Bangladesh. This area is prone to flooding and life used to be difficult for the family, who regularly couldn’t afford enough food or clothes. Rashida has received seeds and other tools and training through the Suchana programme, to enable her to grow her own vegetable garden. Rashida grows the vegetables and her husband sells them at the market which has helped provide them with a steady income.
Jhon, 11, lies laughing on a pile of his family's potatoes drying in the sun, wearing a turquoise wool jumper
Save the Children's Work to Fight Hunger
Food insecurity is a preventable crisis, yet millions of children go to bed hungry every night. Save the Children is on the frontlines in countries facing the worst food crises, delivering lifesaving support and building long-term resilience.
Our Response
In 2024, we reached hundreds of thousands of children with nutrition services across countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, and beyond.
We provide emergency food assistance and cash transfers enabling families to meet urgent needs. Our health workers screen children for malnutrition in communities, treating cases before they become life-threatening. We operate health facilities delivering essential care, including treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
We support infant and young child feeding, helping mothers access the information and support they need to give babies the best nutritional start. We provide clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education—essential because disease worsens malnutrition.
We run school feeding programmes keeping children in education, and we help farming families recover from climate shocks by providing seeds, tools, and livestock support.
Building Resilience
Beyond emergency response, we work with communities to build systems that prevent future crises. We support village savings groups, strengthen early warning systems, and help communities develop climate-adapted agricultural practices.
Our Children's Emergency Fund enables rapid response when crises emerge. In early 2025, when aid cuts threatened lifesaving nutrition services, the Fund released $2.7 million across nine countries to keep health facilities operating.
Advocacy for Change
We demand governments and international institutions tackle the root causes of hunger. We call for increased flexible funding, scale-up of proven interventions like community-based malnutrition treatment, and long-term investment in resilient food and health systems.
We advocate for ceasefires in conflict zones, climate action, and social protection systems that prevent families from falling into crisis.
Millions of children's lives hang in the balance—but hunger is not inevitable. With sufficient support, political will, and urgency, we can save lives and build a future where no child goes hungry.
Find out more about our work to tackle food insecurity and child hunger →
