New study shows 26.5% of Ohio children live at risk of hunger

Map the Meal Gap Child Food Insecurity 2011: Data Available for the First Time by County

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, released a new study this week which reveals in Ohio 26.5 percent of children under the age of 18 are struggling with hunger (some 731,040 children).

The study, “Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011,” also reveals that there are children struggling with hunger in every county in America. Nationally, while one in six Americans overall is food insecure, the rate for children is much higher: nearly one in four children is food insecure.

“The number of children who are at risk of hunger is startling to many individuals, but this number comes as no surprise to those involved in Ohio’s emergency food assistance network. At a time when more and more parents are finding themselves out of work and stretching what little resources they have left to make ends meet, children are feeling the effects of our state’s depleted economy. We must stand up for our state’s most vulnerable populations, especially Ohio’s children, and ensure that the resources necessary to feed our future are available," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, OASHF executive director.

The following data for Ohio is reported in the study and can be viewed on an interactive map on Feeding America's website:
- 26.5 percent of children in Ohio are food insecure.
- 60 percent of food insecure children in Ohio live in a household with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning that they and their families could be eligible for help, including federal child nutrition programs.
- 40 percent of food insecure children in Ohio live in a household with incomes above 185 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning that they are not eligible for assistance from federal child nutrition programs. The only programs available to serve these children and their families are the emergency food assistance network and state funded food programs, operated by OASHF and Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks.

An executive summary of the report can be found at: http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap/map-executive-summary.aspx

The study is an important tool because it provides critical information for developing strategies to alleviate child hunger. Throughout Ohio, the percentage of food insecurity among children ranges from below one in five in Delaware County (19.4 percent) to more than one in three in Pike County (38.5 percent)
By providing additional details about the face of child food insecurity at the county level, the study will enable food banks, the community based agencies they serve and policy makers to redefine approaches in addressing needs of hungry children and their families and develop more effective policy solutions.

This research is supported by ConAgra Foods Foundation. The Foundation funded this research with the goal of advancing the collective understanding of child hunger in America, so that resources at the local and national level could be better leveraged to help children and families in need.

The research is based on “Map the Meal Gap 2011: Food Insecurity Estimates at the County Level,” supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Nielsen.

Foodbank director says food program cuts ultimately cost more

In a letter to the editor published in the Columbus Dispatch today, Mid-Ohio Foodbank President Matt Habash warns against proposed funding cuts to federal nutrition programs such as the Commodities Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), pointing out that "the need to care for these at-risk neighbors won't go away."

The CSFP, which provides a monthly box of food to eligible low-income seniors, helps more than 20,400 Ohioans, with thousands more eligible seniors on the waiting lists. The cuts being considered would immediately remove some 4,500 seniors from the program. To learn more about how the proposed cuts will affect food programs in Ohio, check out this report: Ohio Impact of H.R. 2112. 

"Food insecurity among seniors exacerbates disease and increases disability, inflating health-care expenditures associated with longer hospital or nursing-home stays. In short, these costs adversely impact other taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid, putting even more burden on working Ohioans," Habash wrote.

To read the letter on the Columbus Dispatch website and share your thoughts, click here.
Visit the Senior Nutrition Programs page on OASHF's website to learn more about the work Ohio's foodbanks are doing to fight senior hunger and how you can get involved.

One in four Ohio Households with Children Reporting Food Hardship

This just in from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC): More than 26.3 percent of households with children in Ohio reported they suffered from "food hardship" (an inability to afford enough food) in 2009-2010.

FRAC announced the numbers in the latest report in its “Food Hardship in America" series, which analyzes data that were collected by Gallup and provided to FRAC. FRAC has analyzed responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

Some food hardship details for Ohio:

•In 2009-2010, 26.3 percent of households with children in Ohio said they were unable to afford enough food. The food hardship rate for households without children was 16.6 percent.
•All but two congressional districts in Ohio had more than one in four households with children reporting food hardship in 2008-2010.

Ohio Food Hardship 2009-2010:
National Rank: 20th
Households with children 26.3%
Households without children 16.6%

"These data demonstrate...that this is not the time to make our safety net weaker," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, director Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, "and Congress must ensure that all deficit negotiations protect nutrition programs and other parts of the safety net that help low-income people.”

The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which has interviewed more than one million households since January 2008.

In 16 of Ohio’s 18 Congressional districts at least one in four households with children answered “yes” to the question: “Were their times over the past year when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”





Find out more at FRAC’s website http://frac.org/pdf/aug2011_food_hardship_report_children.pdf
Find out more at OASHF’s website: http://admin.oashf.org/uploads/news/Food_Hardship_2011_Release_081111.pdf