We do fund programs to feed people - for example the federal food stamps program, which is formally known as SNAP (https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nu

We do fund programs to feed people - for example the federal food stamps program, which is formally known as SNAP (https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assista...). Around 10.5% of households in the US experience food insecurity, a term that includes both households with uncertainty but no disruption to eating patterns (for example households successfully relying on federal food assistance programs), and also households that experienced disruption to food patterns at some point in the year (at least once). The definitions of these terms are at the USDA website (https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo...), and there we see 4.1% experienced "very low food security" in 2019, meaning they experienced disruption to normal eating patterns at least once during the year. SNAP covers 11% of Americans, and its covered benefits were expanded by 40% at the start of the pandemic (https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-...) - so it's not like no effort was put into trying to manage food insecurity under the pandemic. However, we don't have very precise metrics on how well people are covered by SNAP. Because the definition of "very low food insecurity" includes those with disruption to eating patterns at least once in a given year (from self-reported surveys), we don't have measures for sustained malnutrition or hunger.