With more people obese than not in this country, keeping people well fed is not a problem that we have.
People don't often die of starvation in the United States. I don't have exact numbers, but if you exclude people who have eating disorders, I'm sure it's insignificant compared to almost every other cause of death. But, malnutrition is certainly a problem, and that problem gets worse when you have people who literally don't know where their next meal is coming from.
That means that people are obese but at the same time essentially starving to death from lack of nutrients. Which causes more food cravings that people are able to attempt to satiate only with more food with poor nutritive value.
At least based on one point of anecdata - my neighbors. I have lots of poor families in my neighborhood even though I am middle class myself thanks to HOC (a Maryland social program where middle class housing is subsidized for the poor). Long story short - my poor African American neighbors are extremely obese; and it's no wonder why. I only ever see them eating McDonald's/dollar tree chips/soda. I know they are on SNAP, but I don't know if they are trading it for booze/cigarettes. It's my opinion though that they lack education on how to prepare/cook cheap raw ingredients into meals.
Yet my other equally poor immigrant El Salvadorian neighbors are skinny as rails and from what I can tell they eat tons of rice and beans and such (I often see them carrying 20 lb bags of rice into their house).
> More than 38 million people are living in poverty in America. In 2019, most families living in poverty earn less than $25,750 per year.
> More than 37 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including more than 11 million children.