INDIANAPOLIS (WOWO) – On Wednesday the United States Department of Agriculture released their food security report for the year 2022.

The survey found that food insecurity rose from 2021’s number of 10.2% to 12.8% in 2022. Meaning total house holds affected by food insecurity in 2022 increased from 13.5 million to 17 million.

The report also specifies households with very low food security, which also increased year over year from 2021’s 3.8% to 2022’s 5.1%. Very low food security is considered the lowest ranking in the survey and describes households where members had to reduce or disrupt eating patterns during the year due to limited resources.

Children were also taken into account during the survey showing an increase from 6.2% in 2021 to 8.8 percent last year. Children in low food security homes are listed as often have to skip a meal or go a whole day without food.

Fred Glass, President and CEO of Indianapolis organization Gleaners Food Bank, released a statement on the USDA’s report saying this doesn’t come as a surprise and that this report shows the highest one year increase in food insecurity since 2008. Gleaners mentioned that as certain pandemic securities have been going away the lines for the food bank have spiked in size.

The USDA defines food insecurity as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” The survey was conducted from a sample size of 31,948 households representing a portion of the 133 million U.S. homes. Whether or not a home was labeled as low or very low food security depended on the amount of food-insecure conditions reported.

The report gave no indication of expected numbers for 2023.