Arkansas was once again the hungriest state in the country in 2023, with the levels of households that experienced low or very low food security rising from 16.6% in 2022 to 18.9%, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The numbers — representing a three-year average — were published in “Household Food Security in the United States in 2023,” which surveyed 1,743 of Arkansas’ average 1.283 million households from 2021 to 2023.
According to the report, the USDA defines “very low food insecurity” as the more severe range of food insecurity, “where one or more members of a household experience reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at times in a year because of limited money and other resources for obtaining food.”
Of the Arkansas households that were surveyed, 6.7% said they experienced very low food security, compared to 6.5% in 2022.
Like last year’s report, Arkansas trailed only South Carolina (7%) in that category.
Arkansas was one of seven states — including Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — where its food insecurity levels were higher than the national average.
Arkansas’ current three-year average is up from the 12.6% average from 2018 to 2020, but down from 21.2% average from 2011 to 2013.
Across the country, an average of 12.2% of 132 million households experienced low or very low food security.
The report said that 13.5% of homes — or 18 million households — were food insecure in 2023.
Of homes that had children, 8.9% — or 3.2 million households — were food insecure. That’s up from 6.2% (2.3 million households) in 2021 and 7.6% (2.9 million households) in 2020.
Brian Burton, the CEO of the Arkansas Foodbank, called the USDA’s report “a wake-up call.”
In a news release, Burton said the report is “a powerful reminder that hunger is a reality for far too many Arkansans.”
The report was released during the Hunger Action Month, a program started by Feeding America to raise awareness and inspire action against hunger.
“This is the time to act,” said Burton. “Whether you give your time, your resources, or simply help us spread the word, every gesture matters. Hunger is not someone else’s problem — it’s ours to solve together. We can change the story for the nearly one in five Arkansas households struggling with food insecurity.”
According to a 2022 report by the Arkansas Governor’s Food Desert Working Group, 62 of Arkansas’ 75 counties had an identified food desert. A food desert is defined as an area where “residents must travel more than one mile in an urban setting or more than 10 miles in a rural setting to obtain a selection of fresh, nutritious food.”
“While we have not reviewed the USDA’s recent report in full, the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) supports a number of efforts that help combat food insecurity across our state,” according to a statement released late Wednesday evening by DHS spokesman Gavin Lesnick, outlining a handful of ways the state is addressing food insecurity in the state.
Lesnick specifically mentioned the state’s new Summer EBT program for family’s with school children, with families being given $120 per eligible child — or $40 per month — over the course of the summer, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides benefits to cover a portion of the food budget for qualifying households.
“We are continuing to identify other innovative ways to partner with communities to support programs that combat hunger across our state,” he said in the statement.
In August, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission awarded $10,000 grants to four entities to combat food insecurity.
They included the city of Pine Bluff and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture in Jefferson County, Innovative Community Concepts in Pulaski County and McElroy House in Yell County.
At a press conference announcing the grant recipients, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders described food insecurity as a “large and growing problem throughout Arkansas.”
“We know that there are still cracks in the system, and one of the biggest that families fall through are the food deserts around our state,” said Sanders. However, the governor said the grants “are a good first step toward addressing that.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-06 02:21:00
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