Hunger in Rural America Is Less Visible, But Just As Pressing
“When it comes to hunger in America, there’s both good and bad news. The good news is that the percentage of Americans living in ‘food insecure’ households — meaning their eating patterns are disrupted or their food intake is reduced — appears to be on the decline, according to anti-hunger advocacy group Feeding America’s latest Map the Meal Gap report. The report, released last week, estimates that 42 million Americans were food insecure in 2015, the latest year for which complete data are available. This represents 13 percent of U.S. households ― a significant decline from the 17 percent peak following the Great Recession in 2009. The bad news is that those 42 million food-insecure Americans need more money to put food on the table than they did before. The amount of money their households need for food has grown 3 percent over the past year — and 13 percent since 2008, the report estimates. While hunger is sometimes painted as a primarily urban problem, Feeding America’s research shows that rural communities are overrepresented among the neighborhoods most dramatically affected by this funding gap.”