New Research on Child Hunger in Rural America

According to a new study commissioned by No Kid Hungry and Feeding America, economic instability, lack of job opportunities and geographic isolation are primary contributors to the threat of child hunger in rural communities.

 A team of researchers from six universities, led by Dr. Lindsey Haynes-Maslow of North Carolina State University, conducted 153 in-depth interviews with a diverse range of parents and caregivers living in rural counties in Arkansas, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia. The researchers talked to low-income families about the specific challenges they face making ends meet in rural America. They also talked about the nutrition programs parents rely on to help feed their children, including federal nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC, school breakfast, afterschool meals and free community meals served in the summer, along with charitable food distributions from food banks and food pantries throughout the year.

“Families in rural areas are really struggling to find work,” said Karen Wong, No Kid Hungry senior manager of research and evaluation. “The lack of decent jobs is one of the main reasons why some rural families have trouble making sure their children get enough healthy food.”

Nationally, 1 in 7 children face food insecurity. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, poverty rates are higher in rural America, with the rural poverty rate at 16.4% compared with 12.9% in urban areas. And 84% of U.S. counties with the highest percentage of food-insecure children are rural.

“Families in this study spoke about their challenges in getting food on the table even with the supports provided by nutrition programs,” said Emily Engelhard, managing director of thought leadership at Feeding America. “The recent proposed changes to SNAP rules will only make things harder; adding time limits to SNAP due to work reporting requirements will be especially damaging in rural communities due to the already low availability of jobs, and eradicating categorical eligibility will leave hundreds of thousands of kids without the free school meals they depend on.”

Building upon the current study's findings, No Kid Hungry and Feeding America provide recommendations for addressing child hunger in rural communities: 

• Make breakfast part of the school day through “breakfast after the bell” programs. 
• Improve summer meals by making federal requirements more flexible to give community programs more ways to serve children in far-flung rural areas.
• Offer culturally appropriate foods both in school meals programs and charitable food assistance programs.
• Offer more fresh and healthy food options in charitable food assistance programs, which is important to low-income, rural caregivers.
• Conduct more research to better understand how to solve the problems of food insecurity and poverty in rural communities.
   

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About Feeding America

Feeding America® is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 5.3 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on X.com.