110 Worth County Children are Food Insecure

Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization released their study that reveals children in every county and congressional district are in the fight against hunger.

The study “Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011” shows that in our service area figures range from 20-31 percent of children who are food insecure. The lowest county is Leavenworth coming in at 20.4 percent of children with food insecurity while Livingston comes in at 31.2 percent insecure rate.

One out of every four children in Second Harvest Community Food Bank service area is considered food insecure.

There are approximately 80,200 members of the population that fall under 18 years old and 19,700 or 25 percent are considered food insecure. In Worth County, MO, 428 members of the population fall under 18 years old and 24.5 percent or 110 children are considered to be food insecure.
In the “There can be no greater cause than to ensure children have enough food to be healthy, grow and learn. Second Harvest stands ready to strategically address this complex issue.” David Davenport, executive director, Second Harvest Community Food Bank. “We ask only that our community embrace the belief that hunger in the life of a child is unacceptable and act on that belief as an advocate, donor or volunteer.”

Being food insecure is defined as the lack of access at times to enough food for an active and healthy life; limited or uncertain unavailability of nutritionally adequate food. The term hunger means the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food. According to this study, millions of people in the United States are going without food.

Second Harvest is helping to end hunger in children via our Backpack Buddies program. Children who are eligible will receive a backpack on the weekends that contain nutritious food to help get through the weekend. This school year, over 2,000 children will receive assistance in 14 counties.

More information about the study can be found at http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap.aspx