Worth County has 23.3% Food Insecurity Rate

Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization, released the "Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2012" study showing that child food insecurity has decreased by 4 percent in Second Harvest Community Food Bank's 19 county service area.
"This important study shines a light on the challenge of hunger and in particular its impact on children," David Davenport, Second Harvest Community Food Bank, CEO said. "It also shows us that these challenges are solvable if we commit as a community with passion and the courage to take bold and aggressive steps."
The study shows child food insecurity in Second Harvest's service area ranges from a low of 18.2 percent in Andrew County to a high of 27.2 percent in Livingston County. The study also revealed the following statistics.
*   Nearly 17,700 children (1 in 5) in Second Harvest's service area are food insecure.
*   In Worth County, 23.3 percent or 100 children under 18 are considered food insecure.
*   In the state of Missouri, 316,450 or 22.7 percent of the population under 18 are considered food insecure.
Despite the drop locally, the study revealed that child food insecurity still exists in every county in the United States. That equals nearly 16 million children across the nation being food insecure.
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 is defined as the uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food.