The USA has enough food to feed all its citizens and residents every single day. However, hunger continues to be a societal challenge. Two things are clear from this: One, hunger is not the result of insufficient food supply. Two, there must be some failure in our systems that fail to ensure stable, reliable access to it.

To dig deeper into this, Sewa USA convened a Policy Cafe titled “Ending Hunger Together: From Episodic Relief to Systemic Resilience.” The objective was to understand how hunger functions within existing policy and institutional frameworks, and why it remains persistent despite the presence of food and programs. Beyond identifying problems, the discussion included potential solutions.

Bringing together experts from food banks, academia, healthcare, and public policy, the discussion centred on a simple but critical question: if food exists and programs exist, why does hunger persist?

The full conversation is worth watching and can be accessed here. However, four lessons emerged from this conversation.

Lesson One: Hunger Is Defined by Instability, Not Scarcity

The discussion challenged the assumption that food shortages drive hunger. Instead, panellists emphasised the instability of food supply as the defining feature of food insecurity.Dr. Steven Azima, an agricultural economist at the University of Vermont, described food insecurity as a condition shaped by irregular access, fluctuating quality, geographic barriers, and misaligned systems.

Federal programs such as SNAP, WIC, school meals, and TEFAP form a strong foundation for food assistance. Individually, they work. However, collectively they operate largely independent of healthcare, housing, transportation, and labor systems. Benefits are delivered on fixed schedules, while wages fluctuate, health needs arise unpredictably, and transportation access varies widely. As a result, households experience gaps, not because support is absent, but because it is fragmented.

Food bank leaders reinforced this point with lived experience. Bekah Clawson of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana noted that many food-insecure households are employed, often holding multiple jobs.Jada Hoerr of Midwest Food Bank described hunger as both a cause and consequence of economic strain, one that food assistance alone cannot resolve. The conclusion was clear: food programs reduce hunger, but without alignment across income, health, and infrastructure systems, they cannot eliminate it.

Lesson Two: Rise in Is an Early Indicator of System Stress

Panelists also framed hunger as an early warning signal of broader system failure.

Sakeenah Shabazz, drawing on policy experience in Washington, D.C., explained that rising demand at food pantries often appears before economic stress shows up in official data. Food insecurity surfaces first because food is the most flexible and most vulnerable line item in household budgets.

From a policy perspective, this represents a missed opportunity.

Community food systems function as real-time sensors of distress, yet this data is rarely integrated into monitoring or response frameworks. Hunger is treated as an outcome to manage rather than a signal to act upon. Recognizing rising food insecurity as an early warning metric could enable earlier, preventive interventions.

Lesson Three: Ending Hunger Is a Coordination Challenge

While federal nutrition programs remain indispensable, their impact is limited when disconnected from healthcare, housing, and employment systems.Cindy Baggett of Feeding the Gulf Coast highlighted how rural and under-resourced regions face compounded barriers such as distance to grocery stores, lack of transportation, and limited access to fresh food that food distribution alone cannot solve.

At the same time, emerging models demonstrate the power of alignment.Scott Brummel from Duke University’s Office of Community Health shared examples of healthcare-linked food interventions, including food-as-medicine programs and Medicaid pilots related to these. These initiatives have shown improvements in health outcomes and reductions in healthcare costs, illustrating that coordinated investment delivers cross-sector benefits.

Alignment, however, requires more than funding. It depends on data sharing, institutional trust, and administrative flexibility, conditions that many systems are not yet designed to support.

Lesson Four: Community Infrastructure Is Where Systems Meet Reality

Throughout the discussion, community-based organizations were recognized as essential infrastructure, not temporary stopgaps. Food banks, faith-based groups, and local nonprofits absorb shocks when formal systems falter, adapting quickly to local needs and maintaining trust with the communities they serve.

In this context, community-based efforts play a crucial role. At Sewa USA, the Sewa Pantry operates not simply as a food distribution point, but as part of a community-rooted support system. Grounded in local relationships, volunteer networks, and cultural understanding, the pantry helps stabilize access where federal programs fall short or fail to reach.

From Episodic Relief to Systemic Resilience

The Policy Cafe underscored that hunger is not a single-cause problem, nor can it be solved through isolated interventions. Food insecurity reflects how well or poorly systems work together under stress. Moving from episodic relief to systemic resilience requires designing policies that anticipate volatility, integrate across sectors, and center dignity as a measure of success.

Hunger is not inevitable. But ending it will require institutions to listen differently, collaborate deliberately, and design systems that reflect how food insecurity is actually experienced.

Learn more about the Sewa Pantry and its community-based approach to hunger response:https://www.sewausa.org/SewaPantry