{"id":8517,"date":"2018-05-18T17:43:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8517"},"modified":"2018-05-18T17:44:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T17:44:42","slug":"study-texas-has-high-rate-of-food-insecurity-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8517","title":{"rendered":"Study: Texas Has High Rate of Food Insecurity, Hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Military<\/a>

Military and civilian volunteers help sort and distribute food at the West Texas Food Bank in El Paso, one of 21 regional food banks across the state. Photo: WikimediaCommons<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

LUBBOCK, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Texas ranks among the top states in the country for food insecurity, according to a new report, with more than 4.3 million people who may not know where their next meal is coming from.<\/p>\n

The report, \u201cMap the Meal Gap,\u201d also finds that the Lone Star State has an especially high number of children, about 1.7 million, who regularly face hunger.<\/p>\n

Food insecurity means a person regularly lacks access to enough food for an active, healthy life.<\/p>\n

Celia Coles, CEO of Feeding Texas, says a simple formula defines the problem: Poverty equals hunger.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood insecurity is very linked to economic insecurity, and so any time you have a county that\u2019s got a high rate of poverty and unemployment and other things, you\u2019re going to see higher rates of food insecurity,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

The report, produced by\u00a0Feeding America<\/a>, a national coalition of food banks, finds that more than 41 million \u2013 1.8 Americans \u2013 often struggle to get enough to eat. Of that total, 13 million are children.<\/p>\n

Coles adds that it would take almost $2 billion a year to close the current meal gap for food-insecure Texas families.<\/p>\n

Coles says that while food insecurity affects a large number of people, it impacts some groups of Texans more than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more prevalent among specific populations,\u201d she points out. \u201cWe know that kids are more likely to face food insecurity. Seniors face higher rates of food insecurity, people with limited English proficiency, immigrant communities. And again, that\u2019s linked to economic insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coles says there is deep concern among advocates over the current debate in Congress on proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the population that\u2019s suffering food insecurity in Texas, it\u2019s estimated that about a third of them aren\u2019t eligible for those federal nutrition programs because their incomes are slightly above the limit,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

Coles says the Feeding Texas network of 21 regional food banks distributed more than 300 million pounds of food to local communities last year, but that much more is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson LUBBOCK, Texas \u2013\u00a0Texas ranks among the top states in the country for food insecurity, according to a new report, with more than 4.3 million people who may not know where their next meal is coming from. The report, \u201cMap the Meal Gap,\u201d also finds that the Lone Star State has an especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8517","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\/8517","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=8517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8519,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8517\/revisions\/8519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}