United Nations data shows food prices across the world rose to a six-year high in December, and they are likely to keep rising as the pandemic continues to rock the global economy, reported Bloomberg. Specifically, due to a combination of bad weather, government interventions to safeguard supplies, and strong market demand, food prices have spiked by 18 percent since May, adding to already-present concerns of growing food insecurity. In the United States alone, a poll late last year found that 40 percent of Americans experienced food insecurity (basically, not being certain whether they could get enough to eat) for the first time this year. Many in the country are turning to food banks, sometimes for the first time, but these institutions, generally struggling even in good times, have found themselves increasingly stretched to the breaking point as they absorb all this new demand.

Previously, the British medical journal Lancet projected that, due to supply disruptions and price shocks, the number of children under five entering a "wasting state"—that is, their weight dropping so far that they risk long-term health and developmental problems, or even death—is expected to grow by 14 percent, worldwide,