{"id":4211,"date":"2015-09-25T19:25:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T19:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4211"},"modified":"2015-09-25T19:25:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T19:25:22","slug":"millions-of-texans-at-risk-of-hunger-despite-economic-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4211","title":{"rendered":"Millions of Texans at Risk of Hunger Despite Economic Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>by Eric Galatas<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; One-point-seven million Texas households experienced hunger or engaged in coping mechanisms to avoid it at some point last year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">That\u2019s more than any other state except California, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Celia Cole, CEO with Feeding Texas, says school meal programs and food stamps, now called SNAP, are working, but more needs to be done to protect families.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4212\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4212\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4212\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gr-48056-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"One in six Texas households struggled to avoid hunger in 2014 despite a fully recovered economy, according to new report. Photo: Andrejs Zemdega.\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gr-48056-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gr-48056-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gr-48056-1-1-405x270.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gr-48056-1-1-60x40.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One in six Texas households struggled to avoid hunger in 2014 despite a fully recovered economy, according to new report. Photo: Andrejs Zemdega.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cWe\u2019ve made some significant gains in Texas in recent years in making sure eligible families are connected to SNAP,\u201d says Cole. \u201cBut the fact we\u2019re still seeing one in six Texas households struggling to avoid hunger, in a fully recovered economy, is cause for some alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The report shows more than 17 percent of families in Texas, compared with the national rate of just over 14 percent, were at risk of hunger in 2014. Cole adds the number of households facing food insecurity in the state remained statistically unchanged from three years ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The report also found 87 percent of Americans who experience food insecurity live in households earning less than 185 percent of the federal poverty line, the equivalent of $37,000 a year for a family of three.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Cole says this means thousands of Texas families, working full-time jobs, are still having a hard time meeting their basic needs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cWe need to increase our investment in the food programs that help people get by when they\u2019re not earning enough,\u201d she says. \u201cBut at the end of the day, as a nation, we need to do more to create opportunities so families can make ends meet on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Cole calls the report\u2019s findings \u201ca wake up call,\u201d and is urging policy makers to take a hard look at why the economy is not producing enough jobs that allow workers to stop worrying about their next meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; One-point-seven million Texas households experienced hunger or engaged in coping mechanisms to avoid it at some point last year. That\u2019s more than any other state except California, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Celia Cole, CEO with Feeding Texas, says school meal programs and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4213,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4211\/revisions\/4213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}