(The Economic Collapse Blog)—The global food crisis is starting to hit home in a major way. Images of starving children on the other side of the planet don’t move people emotionally the way that they did in the 1980s and 1990s. Many people simply don’t care. But now hunger is spreading like wildfire in the United States and Canada.
If you can still afford to eat three meals a day on a consistent basis, you should be very grateful because 27 percent of Americans can’t. Those that are wealthy have a really difficult time understanding how soul crushing it can be to not have enough money for food. There are millions upon millions of people in the United States that are regularly going hungry, and that is one of the reasons why there is so much anger and frustration in our society right now.
I kept warning my readers that the primary way that the global food crisis would initially manifest in wealthy western countries would be through higher food prices.
Since the beginning of this decade, we have been trapped in a seemingly endless cost of living crisis. Food prices have soared, and that has made a trip to the grocery store very painful for most of us.
Now we have reached a stage where vast numbers of us can simply no longer afford to eat three meals a day.
In fact, one survey found that 27 percent of all U.S. adults are now skipping meals due to high food prices…
Intuit Credit Karma, which provides information about financial products, says that more than one-quarter of the people it surveyed said they have skipped meals or sacrificed other spending due to rising costs. The survey of 2,011 adults was conducted online in the United States during the week of May 7.
According to the survey, 28% said they are putting off paying for necessities, such as rent or other bills, to afford groceries — while 27% say they are occasionally skipping meals. Another 18% have applied for or have considered applying for food stamps and other types of assistance, and 15% rely on or have considered visiting food banks for their groceries.
(The most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show that 41.2 million Americans per month are receiving federal food benefits, with the average participant getting $230.88 monthly.)
It is more common for Americans to skip lunch than it is for them to skip dinner.
A different survey discovered that 54 percent of all U.S. workers have skipped lunch “at least once a week” this year…
According to ezCater’s Lunch Report, 54% of US-based, full-time employees missed out on work lunch at least once a week in 2026. Researchers surveyed 1,000 US-based workers, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
Robert Kaskel, vice president of people at ezCater, tells CNBC Make It that the percentage of workers skipping out on meals has increased consecutively for the past four years. In 2023, the first year ezCater conducted the survey, 48% of workers reported skipping one meal at work per week.
The majority of respondents, 81%, said that inflation caused them to change their eating habits at work and that they are responding to high food prices in a variety of ways. To cut costs, some buy out less frequently, resort to cheaper options, use discounts or loyalty programs, keep a strict budget, meal prep or forage for food at work.
Not everyone is skipping lunch for financial reasons.
Some people just get really busy and need to work through lunch.
But without a doubt, hunger is on the rise.
A survey of hourly restaurant employees in the United States found that 61 percent of them have “skipped more than one meal per week during the past month because they couldn’t afford food”…
Food prices have remained elevated for more than three years, while the cost of dining out continues to climb. For the millions of hourly employees who keep the restaurant industry running, those higher costs are taking a measurable toll.
According to the 2026 State of Hourly Restaurant Workers Study, 61% of hourly restaurant employees surveyed said they skipped more than one meal per week during the past month because they couldn’t afford food. The national survey, commissioned by Instant Financial and conducted by the Center for Generational Kinetics, polled 750 hourly restaurant employees between March 3 and March 31. Results were weighted to reflect the U.S. Census by age, region, gender, and geography. The survey also found that 75% of respondents are living paycheck to paycheck, a figure that rises to 83% among restaurant employees not in management roles.
61 percent.
Just think about that.
Restaurant work has never paid very well.
But now most of them don’t even make enough to eat three meals a day.
This is what life is like in America in 2026 for millions of people.
But they aren’t rich or famous and so they will never get on television.
In Canada, conditions are even worse…
Survey results show that 31% of Canadians skipped or reduced meals due to grocery costs, rising from 27% in 2025. Concurrently, use of community food support services grew from 11% to 15%.
If you are Canadian or you have been to Canada lately, you are probably well aware of how shocking the food prices in Canada have become.
Sadly, young adults are being hit harder than anyone else…
Younger adults are feeling it most. Young adults face disproportionate pressure, with 41% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 skipping or downsizing meals and 23% accessing community food programs.
When you can’t afford to eat three meals a day, you are impoverished.
I know that may sound blunt, but it is the truth.
The standard of living for most people has been going down, and demand at food banks has soared all over the nation in 2026…
An NBC News survey this month of 48 of the largest food banks — representing 35 states and Washington, D.C. — found that nearly three-quarters reported increases in the number of people coming to their sites over the past year.
A lot of food banks regularly run out of food because the demand is now so great.
At this stage, close to half of the entire country struggles to pay for even the basic essentials…
Almost half of Americans struggle to pay for at least one of their basic needs, a study by the Pew Research Center found. Nearly three-quarters of lower-income adults reported difficulty covering the cost of groceries, housing, medical care or daily transportation.
If conditions are this dire now, what will things look like once economic conditions get far worse?
As we rapidly approach 2027, the pace of large corporate layoffs is really starting to pick up.
For example, it appears that Disney is about to conduct their largest round of layoffs yet…
Disney is planning to cut several thousand jobs, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Some managers at the entertainment giant have been asked to reduce costs by up to 20%, according to the people, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It marks the latest round of layoffs since CEO Josh D’Amaro took the reins earlier this year. The update comes after separate plans in April to cut as many as 1,000 employees, predominantly in the marketing department, and in September to cut about 300 employees, many in human resources and technology divisions.
Every time another good paying job is eliminated, another American worker is in danger of falling out of the middle class.
The middle class in this country has been steadily eroding for decades, and now that steady erosion is threatening to become a collapse.
I have been ranting about the evisceration of the middle class for nearly two decades, but it didn’t seem to do much good.
The experts kept assuring us that everything was going to be okay, but here in 2026 everything is most definitely not okay.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
