By Granite State Report
On paper, New Hampshire looks like it should be a great place to eat well. We rank near the top nationally for income, education, and overall health. Yet more and more Granite Staters are quietly doing the math at the checkout line and realizing something doesn’t add up.
A bag of apples or a box of cereal? Fresh chicken or instant ramen? Gas for the commute or a week’s worth of vegetables?
As of May 2024, an estimated 135,200 New Hampshire residents — including 33,720 children — were food insecure, a nearly 44% jump in just one year.(NH Food Alliance) At the same time, federal data show New Hampshire with one of the lowest official food-insecurity rates in the country — 7.4% on average from 2021–2023, compared to 12.2% nationally.
Both things can be true: we are a relatively wealthy state and an expensive one where a growing number of people cannot reliably afford healthy food.
This is the story of why.
The Paradox of Plenty in the Granite State
In 2023, Feeding America estimated 10.7% of New Hampshire residents were food insecure, up from earlier years.(Feeding America Map) The New Hampshire Food Bank describes a 43.9% year-over-year increase in food insecurity, driven by the end of pandemic-era aid and stubbornly high prices.(New Hampshire Food Bank)
New Hampshire Hunger Solutions puts it bluntly: hundreds of thousands of residents report “food insufficiency” — not having enough food or the kinds of food they need.(NH Food Alliance)
At the same time, the USDA’s three-year average shows New Hampshire with the lowest food-insecurity rate of any state from 2021 to 2023.
How do you reconcile that?
- The state-level average smooths over sharp county-level differences. Rural North Country counties like Coös and parts of Grafton have much higher estimated rates than the Seacoast or southern I-93 corridor.(Carsey School)
- Food-insecurity metrics count whether households can get enough food — not whether that food is healthy, fresh, or aligned with medical needs like diabetes or heart disease.
- Temporary boosts in aid during COVID briefly lowered food insecurity; as those supports expired, need rebounded back up.(New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute)
In other words, New Hampshire’s “low” food-insecurity rate hides a more uncomfortable reality: it is entirely possible to be full, but not nourished.
And when you zoom in to where the grocery stores are — or aren’t — the picture gets sharper.
Food Deserts, New Hampshire Style
“Food desert” is the slightly dramatic term for a very boring, very brutal reality: places where it’s hard to buy affordable, nutritious food.
The USDA defines low-access areas based on how far people live from a supermarket or large grocery store (typically more than a mile in cities and more than 10 miles in rural areas), combined with low income in the area.(Economic Research Service)
A 2019 brief from the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School looked specifically at New Hampshire’s food landscape. Key findings:(Carsey School)
- Northern and western New Hampshire — especially Coös, Grafton, and Sullivan counties — have higher shares of low-income residents and low population density.
- Retail food outlets cluster where people cluster: the Seacoast, Manchester–Nashua corridor, Concord, and a scattering of small city centers.
- That leaves large rural areas with few full-service grocery options, even as discount convenience stores and gas-station markets fill the gap.
This is what a New Hampshire food desert actually looks like:
- A small town in the North Country where the only year-round food outlet is a gas station selling shelf-stable processed foods.
- A senior living on a fixed income in a rural trailer park 15 miles from the nearest supermarket, with no car and spotty transit.
- A family in a working-class Manchester neighborhood technically “near” a supermarket — but the walk is along a high-speed arterial with no sidewalk and no safe place to cross.
The USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas flags census tracts like these nationwide.(Economic Research Service) In New Hampshire, they cluster in rural pockets and some urban neighborhoods where rents are lower but healthy food options are limited.
The result: even when people have SNAP benefits or cash to spend, where they live can tilt them toward cheap, ultra-processed calories.
Sticker Shock in the Aisles
New Hampshire’s grocery problem isn’t just access. It’s price.
One analysis of credit and debit card spending from personal-finance firm Empower found that residents here spend an average of $704 per month on groceries, the third-highest average in the country, behind only Maine and Connecticut.(Empower)
That doesn’t mean every trip to Market Basket looks like a Whole Foods haul; it means:
- Food is expensive
- Incomes are relatively high
- Families are stretched by housing, energy, childcare, and healthcare costs at the same time
State economists have documented how overall affordability in New Hampshire has eroded, as housing and other essentials eat up more of the paycheck.(New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute) Food is very much part of that story.
Federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show food-at-home prices in the Northeast region have risen markedly since 2020, with staples like eggs, bread, and meat seeing double-digit jumps at various points.(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
So when a shopper in Berlin or Manchester says, “Everything in the store is outrageous now,” they’re not being dramatic — they’re echoing the same price-shock the New Hampshire Food Bank hears daily from clients statewide.(New Hampshire Food Bank)
SNAP: When the Safety Net Doesn’t Cover the Bill
For low-income households, the main federal defense against hunger is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), still often called “food stamps.”
In New Hampshire:
- Around 76,900 people — about 5.5% of the state — received SNAP in fiscal year 2024.(USAFacts)
- State policy memos show updated benefit levels and income limits each October, reflecting federal adjustments tied to the cost of food.(NH DHHS)
Nationally, a 2024 re-evaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, the formula behind SNAP, raised the average benefit to about $6.20 per person per day — roughly $186 per month.(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Do that math out loud:
$6.20 per day ÷ 3 meals ≈ $2.07 per meal
In a state where many households are spending more than $700 a month on groceries, that $186 per month average only gets you so far.(Empower)
On top of that:
- SNAP is strictly for food — not for gas to get to a supermarket, or for the higher electric bill caused by running an extra freezer full of sale items.
- Families see their benefits drop as their income rises, even when that extra income is swallowed by rent or childcare.
- Political fights in Washington routinely put SNAP on the chopping block, with proposals in recent years to tighten work requirements or cut hundreds of billions over a decade.(The Wall Street Journal)
From the vantage point of a New Hampshire family trying to eat well, SNAP is less a full-blown safety net and more a leaky umbrella in a storm of high prices.
The Economics of “Healthy vs. Cheap”
Here’s the crux of the problem: even with help, the food system quietly nudges people away from healthy choices.
A landmark meta-analysis from Harvard School of Public Health compared dozens of studies on food prices and found that healthier diets cost about $1.50 more per person per day than less healthy diets.(Harvard Magazine)
That doesn’t sound like much — “the price of a cup of coffee,” as the researchers put it — until you scale it:
- $1.50 x 365 days = $547.50 per year
- For a family of four, that’s about $2,200 more per year just to choose the healthier pattern.(Harvard Magazine)
Other research finds:
- Per calorie, healthier foods tend to be significantly more expensive than unhealthy ones, especially in processed-food systems like the U.S.(ScienceDirect)
- When budgets are tight, people rationally seek the most calories per dollar, which often means refined grains, added sugars, and cheap fats.(Utah State University Extension)
In plain terms:
- A head of broccoli, some brown rice, and chicken breast might be healthier — but per calorie, it’s more expensive and more work.
- A frozen pizza or box of mac and cheese is calorie-dense, cheap, and fast.
Layer New Hampshire’s costs on top of that:
- Higher grocery spending
- Rural transport costs (driving 20–40 extra miles to the nearest full-service grocery)
- Seasonal constraints on fresh produce
…and the “healthy premium” gets worse.
This is the food insecurity–obesity paradox: in rich countries, the people most likely to struggle with hunger are also the most likely to struggle with obesity and diet-related disease, because the cheapest calories tend to be the worst for long-term health.
YouTube Deep Dives: The Price of Eating Well
For readers who like to go down rabbit holes, a few solid explainer videos help unpack the economics behind all this:
- Why Healthy Food Is Expensive – A breakdown of supply chains, subsidies, and why processed food undercuts fresh produce on price. (YouTube: Why Healthy Food Is Expensive)
Watch on YouTube (YouTube) - Food Deserts: Hidden Hunger in America’s Neighborhoods – Explains how geography, zoning, and corporate strategy create pockets with poor access to healthy food.
Watch on YouTube (YouTube) - More People in New Hampshire Facing Food Insecurity – WMUR segment from a Manchester food pantry, grounding these issues in local faces and stories.
Watch on YouTube (YouTube)
Community Gardens: Hyper-Local, Hyper-Practical
Against that grim math, New Hampshire has a quiet counter-movement growing in backyards, vacant lots, and shared plots.
The New Hampshire Food Alliance notes a surge of interest in home and community gardening, mirroring national trends. Gardeners report putting more time and money into growing their own food even as economic uncertainty rises.(NH Food Alliance)
UNH Extension created an interactive online map of community gardens across the state, highlighting opportunities from Nashua to the North Country.(Extension | University of New Hampshire) These gardens do more than produce vegetables:
- They stretch food budgets by supplementing grocery store purchases.
- They provide fresh, culturally relevant produce — from heirloom tomatoes to herbs used in immigrant and refugee communities.
- They boost mental health, physical activity, and social connection, all of which matter in a state with high rates of isolation among older adults.(NH Food Alliance)
One example in the North Country: Taproot’s Lancaster Community Garden gives families and individuals space, tools, and support to grow their own “backyard” garden, even if they don’t have land at home. The same organization runs a Local Food Fund and SNAP incentive program that gives EBT shoppers 50% off fresh local produce at its marketplace.(Taproot)
These are small systems, not statewide solutions. But for a family that can grow $300–$500 worth of produce over a season from a low-cost plot and some seeds, a community garden is the difference between “some vegetables” and “vegetables every day.”
Local Farms, Co-ops, and the New Food Infrastructure
The phrase “buy local” can sound like a lifestyle brand for people with farmers’ market tote bags and Volvo wagons. In New Hampshire, it’s becoming part of the food security strategy.
Organizations like NOFA-NH (the Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Hampshire) emphasize that local food systems can improve access to fresh, healthy food when paired with subsidies and access programs — not just as a premium product. Their food access resources list CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares that accept SNAP, farm stands with discount programs, and partnerships between farms and food pantries.(NOFA-NH)
Food Co-ops: Democratic Grocery Stores
The Concord Food Co-op is a member-owned grocery, bakery, and café focused on natural, organic, and fair-trade food, with a mission to keep prices reasonable while prioritizing local suppliers.(Concord Food Co-op –)
Further west, Co-op Food Stores — with locations in Lebanon, Hanover, and other Upper Valley communities — is one of the oldest and largest food co-ops in the country. Co-ops emphasize:(The Co-op Food Stores of NH and VT)
- Long-term relationships with local farms
- Transparent pricing and member ownership
- Programs to make healthy food more affordable, such as member discounts, budget-friendly staple lines, and sometimes “co-op basics” pricing
For a low-income shopper, a co-op can still feel expensive. But when combined with:
- SNAP incentive programs that double fruit and vegetable spending
- Sales cycles and discounted member items
- Cooking education and bulk staples
…co-ops become one of the few places where “healthy and affordable” is not a contradiction in terms.
The Role of Policy: SNAP, Wages, and Zoning (Without the Flame War)
It’s easy to turn this into a partisan food fight. That’s not helpful. The more useful question is: what levers actually move the numbers for New Hampshire households?
Evidence from NH and nationally suggests a few:
1. Boosting and Protecting SNAP
The 2022 revision to the Thrifty Food Plan — which raised SNAP to about $6.20 per person per day nationally — reduced food hardship, especially for families with children.(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Rolling those gains back, or layering on strict work requirements without addressing transportation, childcare, or disability, tends to push vulnerable households off the program while saving relatively little in the context of the federal budget.(The Wall Street Journal)
In New Hampshire, where relatively few residents receive SNAP but many are “just above” the cutoff in a high-cost environment, there’s a strong economic argument for:
- Preserving benefit levels against inflation
- Simplifying enrollment and recertification
- Expanding SNAP incentive programs that double fruit and vegetable spending at farmers markets and co-ops(Taproot)
2. Wages and Cost of Living
New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s work on cost of living shows how quickly food becomes unaffordable when housing, childcare, and healthcare devour most of a paycheck. In some counties, a two-adult, two-child household needs well above the federal poverty line just to meet basic expenses.(New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute)
Food policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Low wages + expensive housing + expensive food equals households that live on boxed pasta and skip fresh fruit. Raise wages or lower other fixed costs, and suddenly the $1.50 daily premium for a healthier diet is more manageable.
3. Zoning, Transit, and Retail Mix
USDA’s atlas and UNH’s food-landscape mapping both make a simple point: where grocery stores show up is not random. It’s shaped by:(Carsey School)
- Zoning rules
- Land costs and development patterns
- Road networks and transit
- Retail chains’ profit models
Local decisions — allowing mixed-use development, supporting mid-sized grocery stores instead of only big boxes, supporting transit links to shopping areas — directly affect whether people can buy fresh food without a 40-mile round trip.
What’s Working on the Ground in NH
For all the daunting structural issues, New Hampshire has a surprisingly dense ecosystem of people hacking the food system from below. A non-exhaustive sample:
- NH Food Bank – Distributes millions of pounds of food through pantries statewide, while also running cooking classes and mobile food pantries in underserved areas.(New Hampshire Food Bank)
- NH Hunger Solutions – Focuses on getting every eligible child and adult connected to federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP, and uses data to highlight gaps in access.(New Hampshire Hunger Solutions)
- NOFA-NH & NH Food Alliance – Bridge farmers and eaters, expanding programs where low-income households can access local, organic food at reduced prices, and advocating for policies that support both nutrition and farm viability.(NOFA-NH)
- Taproot & local garden groups – Turn vacant land and spare corners into community gardens, especially in the North Country, combining food production with education and community-building.(Taproot)
- Co-ops and independent grocers – From Concord Food Co-op to Co-op Food Stores in the Upper Valley and Littleton Food Co-op in the North Country, member-owned stores prioritize local sourcing, transparent pricing, and community programs over pure profit.(Concord Food Co-op –)
Each of these efforts chips away at the core problem: the gap between what it costs to eat well and what people can realistically pay.
So, Is Eating Healthy in NH Really Harder?
Short answer: yes — for a lot of people, and for reasons that are more structural than personal.
- We live in a state where food insecurity is officially low, but rising fast, and concentrated in particular counties and neighborhoods.(Feeding America Map)
- We face above-average grocery spending, high cost of living, and long distances in rural areas, which amplify the national problem that healthy diets cost more than unhealthy ones.(Empower)
- The primary safety net, SNAP, helps — but when benefits work out to roughly $2 per meal in an expensive region, it’s simply not enough to guarantee a healthy diet, especially once you factor in transport and housing.(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
At the same time, New Hampshire is experimenting — quietly but seriously — with ways to bend that curve:
- Community gardens and local farms that lower the real cost of vegetables for participants.(NH Food Alliance)
- Co-ops and independent grocers that prioritize healthy, local food at more accessible prices.(Concord Food Co-op –)
- Advocacy groups that treat hunger data as infrastructure planning, not charity marketing.(NH Food Alliance)
The hard truth is that for many Granite Staters, especially in rural areas and low-wage households, eating well is a daily optimization problem: trade-offs between calories and nutrients, rent and groceries, time and money.
Whether New Hampshire leans into co-ops, community gardens, stronger nutrition programs, or some combination of all three will determine if “Live Free or Die” includes the freedom to put real food — not just cheap calories — on the table.
References & Further Reading
- USDA Economic Research Service – Food Access Research Atlas (Economic Research Service)
- Carsey School of Public Policy – Mapping the Food Landscape in New Hampshire (2019)(Carsey School)
- NH Fiscal Policy Institute – Food Insecurity in New Hampshire During and Following the COVID-19 Pandemic (2024)(New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute)
- USDA ERS – Food insecurity ranged from 7.4 percent in New Hampshire to 18.9 percent in Arkansas in 2021–23 (2024)
- Feeding America – Map the Meal Gap 2024: Hunger & Poverty in New Hampshire(Feeding America Map)
- NH Food Alliance – Nutrition Access & Security and Home & Community Gardens Issue Brief(NH Food Alliance)
- Harvard School of Public Health – Meta-analysis on diet cost differences and related coverage in Harvard Gazette and Harvard Magazine(Harvard Magazine)
- Empower – Average Cost of Groceries by State (New Hampshire: $704/month)(Empower)
- NH Food Bank – Taking Action to Combat 43.9% Increase in Food Insecurity Statewide(New Hampshire Food Bank)
- NOFA-NH – NH Food Access Resources(NOFA-NH)
- Taproot NH – Food Access: Lancaster Community Garden & Local Food Fund(Taproot)
- Concord Food Co-op & Co-op Food Stores(Concord Food Co-op –)
The real story of eating well in New Hampshire isn’t just about personal choice or willpower; it’s about maps, math, and the quiet battle between our paychecks and the price of a tomato.
