A report released in September shows that Alabama has made little improvement in addressing hunger in the state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report, Household Food Security in the United States 2013, on Sept. 3. The report shows that from 2011 to 2013, 16.7 percent of Alabama’s 1.86 million households experienced low or very low food security.
That percentage is slightly lower than the 17.3 percent of households reported between 2008 and 2010, though not a statistically significant drop, according to the report.
Day-to-day struggle
The USDA report defines food insecurity as “when consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.” Nationally 14.3 percent of American households are considered food insecure.
A sampling of questions used in the survey spotlights the day-to-day struggle many households face:
In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food?
In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn’t eat, because there wasn’t enough money for food?
In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food?
In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of any of the children’s meals because there wasn’t enough money for food?
In the last 12 months, were the children ever hungry but you just couldn’t afford more food?
While the numbers do not put Alabama at the top of the list of hungriest states, the rate of hunger is above the national average, as is the state’s number of working poor, according to the Working Poor Families Project. These figures, combined with Alabama’s high poverty rate, mean many Alabama residents are feeling hopeless, said Kristina Scott, executive director of Alabama Possible, a statewide nonprofit organization that works to reduce systemic poverty.
“What we hear from our partners who work in food banks is that they see folks who don’t have a lot of hope. They were hit hard by the recession, and their employment outlook is not changing,” Scott said.
Many of these individuals did not have a lot of resources to begin with, Scott said, and now they are working less and earning less money.
“They are stuck in a pattern of living day to day without enough to support themselves, and the longer that goes on, the more desperate people feel,” Scott said.
According to the USDA report, households with children under the age of 18 and those headed by an unmarried female are more likely to experience food insecurity.
Minority households and rural residents also have higher rates of poverty and hunger.
Putting kids first
In many cases, the report said, parents are able to maintain normal or near-normal diets for their children.
They can do this even if the parents themselves are food insecure, in part thanks to safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
The National School Lunch Program also helps. More than 436,000 children in Alabama schools receive free or reduced lunch and breakfast where available, according to the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE). The ALSDE is working to increase access to summer food programs as well (see story, http://tinyurl.com/mxqqhjc or by searching “Alabama State Department of Education” at www.thealabamabaptist.org).
This fall, several school systems have signed up for community eligibility under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and many more systems are eligible, Scott said. The advantage of community eligibility is that all children get a meal without paperwork for families and administrators.
“It’s one of those systemic changes that’s a huge relief for parents and educators,” she said.
Scott believes collaborative efforts are the key to combatting hunger because they allow limited funds to be used more effectively.
“We’re never going to ‘food bank’ our way out of this problem,” Scott said. “We must make sure people have the nutrition they need and create systems that address the root causes of hunger.”
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