2010 Missouri Hunger Atlas reveals staggering increases in hunger and poverty

Last week the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri in Columbia released its updated Missouri Hunger Atlas. The atlas provides a county-by-county statistical accounting of the levels of hunger in Missouri. The atlas reflects trends documented in news reports and national hunger studies, like the recent report in the Kansas City Star that shows food stamp use in Kansas increasing 20% in a single year from 2008 to 2009. However, given the significant drop in jobs and income in Missouri over the past few years, the report underscores a possibly chronic, long-term hunger problem.

The report does not investigate how to create jobs that will pay sustaining wages; the purpose of the atlas is to show the level of food insecurity and the response to meet the need. Given the drastic decline in local property taxes, decrease in education funding, and drop in job skills training programs, it's difficult to maintain an optimistic view for working families.

Missouri area food banks have seen significant increases in the amount of food distributed to pantries and shelters over the past two years due to the economic crisis. The atlas identifies a strong correlation between poverty and hunger as in the following excerpt.
Food insecurity and poverty are clearly connected—poverty is the best single predictor of food insecurity, and hunger strongly correlates with lower educational achievement, unemployment and impaired work performance.

The atlas is an important resource for concerned individuals and decision makers alike. It helps people track the severity of the problem and the response of government and private service organizations' performance to provide food assistance. It not only reinforces the value and prominence of Food Stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) in filling the food gap for working families, but also reinforces trends like "food deserts" in urban and rural agricultural areas like how the Missouri Corn Growers Association discovered this phenomena.

To understand the level of need in Missouri one look no further than how 50% of children in places like Jackson County and as much as 70-80% of children in south-central and southeastern Missouri are eligible for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program as depicted in this chart for the Missouri Hunger Atlas.


Public investment in programs like SNAP is still a key link in food assistance for Americans today. The atlas documents the need and performance served by several national feeding programs like SNAP/Food Stamps, Free and Reduced Lunch Program, Summer Food Service Program, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
The establishment of public and private programs and activities is a necessary ―safety net response to meeting the short-term needs of the food insecure and hungry citizens who inhabit every county and corner of our state.
Despite the drastic decline in food security for Missourians, the Missouri Hunger Atlas underscores the need for healthy eating to reduce the triple threats of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The report also makes recommendations to emphasize nutrition education and healthy eating, plus challenges neighborhoods to connect community gardens with local food pantries.

The report boldly suggests in its conclusion that food security should be a basic right "alongside such social concerns as education and health."

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