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Kentucky's Hunger Crisis: Challenges and Solutions · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  No one wants to go to bed hungry, but the reality is in Kentucky, it happens.
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  Welcome to Talking FACS, where we share information you can use to strengthen
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  your family, your community, and our state.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family Consumer Sciences Extension.
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  My guest today, LaToya Drake, Extension Specialist for Food Access and Engagement
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  with the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program, is here to share with us the
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  state of hunger in Kentucky.
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  Welcome, LaToya. Hey, Mindy.
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  So this is not a fun topic. Usually when we talk, we talk about fun things,
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  but this one really is not a fun topic.
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  But it is important that we discuss because we need to raise awareness.
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  It's a real topic. And when we think about hunger, we often think about food
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  and nutrition insecurity.
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  And the USDA, Mindy, defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access
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  to enough food for an active, healthy life.
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  And when we throw nutrition insecurity in there, that means nutritious food. There's a lack of that.
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  Because lots of the times, you might not have hunger pains, right?
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  Your belly might be full, but is that full with the best foods that are going
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  to keep you healthy and satiated and full, right? There might not be the best foods for you.
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  Right. And sometimes...
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  You might have access to food, but just not knowing what the best food for you
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  to eat might be an issue as well, right?
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  Right. You don't know what to do with that food to make it the highest nutrition
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  that you could be getting, right?
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  You might have access to beans and rice and different things,
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  but if it doesn't taste good to you, you might not know how to make it in a
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  tasteful way, then you're not going to eat that nutritious food anyways.
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  Exactly. You know, many 14.8% of Kentuckians experience food insecurity.
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  That's higher than the national average of 11.5%. Oh, and that's significantly higher.
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  So what about children? Why are we seeing children at a higher risk of food insecurity?
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  Well, it's really upsetting to me because children, about one in five or 22%
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  of Kentucky's children are food insecure or hungry. with rates exceeding 30%
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  in 11 Kentucky counties.
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  So children, their growing bodies require consistent and nutritious meals for
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  development. So when they don't get that, they don't develop as well.
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  They might have poor academic performance, developmental delays,
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  and long-term health consequences for not getting that food that they need early
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  on or any time during their development.
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  And when we break that down, that's almost 10% of Kentucky's counties have,
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  a third of their children are food insecure.
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  And that is astounding. And really upsetting and sad. Very.
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  Think about what food insecurity means and what hunger means and how many bellies
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  might not be full going to bed at night.
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  Or how many bellies might be, you know, empty when they go to school in the morning.
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  And how do you think it's full if you're hungry? Those who've listened to the
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  podcast know that I have a little in my life, and I know that she could eat 24-7.
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  And so if a child does not have access to nutritious food...
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  What does that do to their growth and development? We talk about brain development
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  and we talk about just overall how children develop and not having access to
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  that food is so critical, especially as they're growing and developing.
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  So how do rural communities face unique challenges in food access?
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  So thinking about Kentucky, many of those kids are living in rural communities, right?
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  Because 59 of Kentucky's 120 counties are rural, and rural areas tend to have
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  higher food insecurity rates than urban regions, right?
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  We know that the city often has food deserts, but I appreciate the study of
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  rural and urban issues because many of those are similar across spaces, right?
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  When you get into the inner city, there's food deserts. But when you get into
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  the rural areas, there's also food deserts.
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  And they also have fewer grocery stores, longer travel distances.
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  Limited transportation options, which make access to nutritious food more difficult.
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  We often see those yellow signs across rural areas, right, popping up everywhere,
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  selling lots of foods that are shelf-stable, nice grains.
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  You can find some foods like that, but you don't often find fresh fruits and
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  vegetables in our rural areas for folks to access. So that's something to think about.
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  Many rural residents, many do rely on food banks and local initiatives,
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  but 30% of food insecure households earn too much to qualify for assistance like SNAP.
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  And so earlier this spring on the podcast, I talked to Bethany Pratt about growing your own food.
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  And that's one of those things that's really important, especially in those
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  rural food deserts that we learn, you know, those skills to grow your own food,
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  because that might be one way to combat it.
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  But what does the data reveal about the connection between poverty and food insecurity? Yeah.
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  So we know that poverty is a major factor influencing food insecurity,
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  but food insecurity affects more than just those low-income households.
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  Because remember, we're thinking about food and nutrition insecurity, right?
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  So it's bigger than just in poverty. Almost 30% of food-insecure Kentuckians
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  earn about 185% of the federal poverty line. So they're earning more.
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  So it's making them ineligible for nutrition assistance programs.
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  And when we think about working poor folks, right, who are living paycheck to
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  paycheck, and then we combine that with inflation of groceries,
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  that's all the time, it's hard to get the food and the nutrition that you need.
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  So most households are forced to choose between essentials.
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  So 67% of Kentuckians receiving food bank assistance have to decide between
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  buying food and paying utilities.
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  So they got to rob Peter to pay Paul, right? So what are some potential solutions
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  to address this hunger crisis that's in Kentucky?
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  So people are out here addressing it for themselves, right?
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  People are understanding how to manage their resources, and they're feeding
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  themselves and getting their kids fed, and they're cooking, and they're coming
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  to classes to learn how to use their resources better.
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  But we can think about, as a people, thinking about policy influencing those
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  that expand food access or food assistance eligibility for families who earn
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  just above the cutoff, right? We can think about that.
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  We can strengthen partnerships between food banks and local farmers and organizations
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  like Hunters for the Hungry to provide diverse and fresh local foods.
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  We can invest in transportation solutions for rural areas to improve food access.
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  And we can support extension-led programs like Hunger Summits and Farm to Table
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  initiatives and Backpack programs and Hunters for the Hungry initiatives with 4-H.
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  Those are really neat to see coming up across the Commonwealth to create sustainable
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  and community-driven solutions.
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  And we can just raise awareness like we're doing in this podcast to advocate
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  for policies that address the root causes of hunger and to educate ourselves
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  on what hunger and food insecurity is.
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  We want everybody to have access to affordable and nutritious foods.
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  I love the community-driven programs that you're talking about because lots
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  of times the people in their own community don't recognize what the insecurity
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  is that's right around them.
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  And so if we talk about those community-driven programs, that raises awareness
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  locally and then also helps them to reinvest in their own community and find
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  ways that they can be involved and make a difference.
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  Right, and have sustainable programs that we can continue to help each other
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  out because we are each other's community and we need to take care of each other.
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  At least that's what I feel and I'd like to do.
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  So we can do that through food and making sure folks are eating better and doing
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  the best they can with what they have on hand, right?
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  Exactly, exactly. Latoya, I always love it when you come to share with us because
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  we always talk about something important, even if it isn't fun.
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  Yeah. Thank you, Mindy. If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking
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  FACS, and you can find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
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  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
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  health, resource management, family development, and civic engagement.
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  If you enjoyed today's podcast, have a question or a show topic idea,
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  leave a like and a comment on Facebook at UKFCSEXT or send us an email at UKFCSEXT@UKY.edu.
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  Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky
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  Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local extension
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  agent for Family and Consumer Sciences. We build strong families.
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  We build Kentucky. It starts with us.
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  Thank you.