Missouri ranks fifth in child hunger, study finds

A new study ranks Missouri fifth-highest in the nation in child hunger, a figure that worries workers at the Southeast Missouri Food Bank.

According to the Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization, 23.2 percent of children in Missouri are considered food insecure.

"Food insecurity means they don't have sufficient food in their household to feed their family," said Karen Green, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Food Bank. "It describes those children who are probably going to bed hungry at night."

Missouri also has seen a 3.2 percent increase in food insecurity in children during the last year, according to the Feeding America study.

"Children are so vulnerable because they can't fend for themselves," Green said. It's a lot easier to dismiss hunger in an adult because we assume they're able to go out and get something to eat, even if it's from a Dumpster."

Due mainly to the recession, Green said, the food bank is seeing increased demand from the 150 not-for-profit community agencies it supplies with food.

The food bank has distributed 1.3 million more pounds of food this year to date, compared with last year. During 2009, the food bank distributed 5.1 million pounds of food, most of which is donated by corporations and local organizations holding food drives.

Of the 16 counties the Southeast Missouri Food Bank serves, six -- Mississippi, Ripley, Wayne, Pemiscot, Carter and Dunklin -- are among the poorest counties in the state, Green said.

Those counties most likely have even higher child hunger rates, she said.

Missouri's abundance of rural areas, where poverty is more prevalent, likely contributed to its fifth-place ranking, Green said. In many cases, poverty continues through generations of the same family.

"We have a lot of families in Southeast Missouri who are very poor, and people don't seem to know how to get out of that situation," she said.

About 64,000 people within the food bank's service area are living below the poverty level and 35 percent of them are children, according to Green.

She said hunger affects children mentally as well as physically.

"Research tells us that when children experience even occasional hunger they may have trouble concentrating, show aggressive tendencies, stunted growth, and increased likelihood of obesity," Green said.

Arkansas, Texas, Arizona and the District of Columbia ranked higher than Missouri in the Feeding America study.

In an effort to better address local childhood hunger, last school year the food bank started its Back Packs for Friday program. With the help of volunteers, children in need are sent home from school each Friday with a backpack containing easy-to-open meals and nutritious snacks. Last school year the program started at Jefferson and Blanchard elementary schools in Cape Girardeau. This fall the program will expand to Morehouse Elementary and Southeast Elementary in the Sikeston, Mo., area. It takes a $300 donation to sponsor a child in the backpack program for the full school year, Green said.

For more information about the food bank, call 651-0400 or e-mail info@semofoodbank.org.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent Address:

3920 Nash Road, Cape Girardeau, MO