54 Million Americans Are Projected to Be Food Insecure by End of Year Volunteers load free groceries into cars for people experiencing food insecurity due to the coronavirus pandemic, on December 1, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images By As autumn fades and winter looms, the dire predictions public-health experts made about Covid-19 have, unfortunately, proven all-too-accurate. On October 27th, 74,379 people were infected in the United States; less than a month and a half later, on December 9th, that number had soared to 218,677, while the 2020 total has just surpassed 15 million, a number no other country, not even India, which has a population three times that of the U.S., has surpassed.