Starving in Silence: Surging Food Insecurity in Yemen

Jonessa White, maternal & child health specialist, quickly responded to families raising concerns about food insecurity. Through a food access assessment, Jonessa’s team quickly identified and addressed language-accessibility barriers to educational resources.

In 2020, the IRC and the Lebanon Protection consortium (LPC) partnered to explore the linkage between food insecurity and child labor, and its recent evolution in Lebanon given the multiple crises that hit the country and the deteriorating overall environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic left many Americans, including refugees and immigrants, struggling to put food on their plates. Refugee farmers working with the IRC’s New Roots program are helping to provide healthy, affordable produce.

For newcomer refugee families, access to food assistance benefits have offered a lifeline as families worked to achieve self-sufficiency. However, in July 2025, H.R.1 set in motion cuts that would eliminate access to federal nutrition programs for many refugees and immigrants nationwide. The IRC in Utah responded rapidly to the growing need.