1 in 6 go hungry in Parker County

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A Feeding America web page shows statistics for Parker County. COURTESY GRAPHIC

April 4, 2011

Crystal Brown Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Mon Apr 04, 2011, 12:39 PM CDT

PARKER COUNTY — A first of its kind report shows that one in six Parker County residents are “food insecure,” and half of that population does not qualify for government assistance leaving them to rely on private charities.

This data comes from Map the Meal Gap, a study released by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Food insecurity refers to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s measure of lack of access, at times, to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life for all family members. Any degree of food insecurity can lead to malnutrition and chronic hunger, according to the report.

Data for Parker County indicates 15.7 percent of its residents are food insecure, lower than the state average of 17.8 percent and the United States rate of 16.6 percent.

Of the 13 counties serves by the Tarrant Area Food Bank, a regional Feeding America program, Parker County has the third lowest rate of insecurity with Denton County at 14.7 percent and Hamilton County at 15.5 percent.

While 41 percent of food insecure residents in Parker County qualify for SNAP food stamps, free and reduced-cost school meals and other government nutrition programs, 50 percent do not qualify for any government program while the remaining 8 percent qualify for some assistance but not for SNAP food stamps or free and reduced-cost school meals. This translates into 2.8 million meals per year that food insecure residents in the county go without due to a lack of resources, according to the report.

Previously, this data was only available at the state and national level, leaving Feeding America and its member food banks to use the poverty level as the best indicator of food insecurity on the local level.

“Now we are able to see that it’s not just those under the poverty line affected,” Denise Semple, Tarrant Area Food Bank marketing coordinator, said. “It’s other people who can’t access the government programs. It’s availability to nutritious food on a regular basis.

“The main thing to take away from this study is that it’s not necessarily the impoverished coming to the food bank, and it’s showing the changing face of hunger.”

Semple said the food bank can use this information to better target locations in their service area that need additional help.

“Those who don’t have access to government programs may not have been in this situation before and don’t know where they can access help,” she said. “We’ll have to market ourselves differently to let them know we are here to help. We are working on better ways to reach those individuals.”

Glenda Webb, Parker County Senior Center director, said they, like most food assistant agencies in the county, do not gather information to determine those in need of food who do not qualify for government assistance, but she suspects most of the seniors they help would fall in that gap.

“Most seniors are living on a fixed income and trying to make ends meet,” she said. “It would surprise me if any of them are getting government assistance [for food].”

And with the senior population increasing so is the Meals-On-Wheels program in Parker County. Webb said the program grows each month and is vital to ensuring seniors maintain a healthy diet.

“One of the leading health risks for senior citizens is poor health nutrition,” Webb said. “It causes all kinds of side issues. Loneliness and isolation lead to bad nutrition as well. I’m afraid so many of our people are in that category.”

While food assistance figures at the Senior Center are on the rise, Manna Storehouse President Ann Stevens said they have seen a decrease of about 15 percent in the number of clients requesting food assistance since the height of the recession.

“I think some of our clients have found jobs and gone to work,” Stevens said. “We’re not seeing them any more.”

Manna feeds, on average, about 250 families each month. They fed 282 families in January and 179 in February, although Stevens said the February figures are low due to the inclement weather that closed the storehouse for a full week.

She added, the main assistance people are seeking when they come to Manna is for help with a utility bill with food being the second request.

“Almost everyone that comes in wants food,” Stevens said. “[The amount of people who go hungry] concerns us. But there is no reason for anyone in Parker County to go hungry as long as Manna’s doors are open. We feed everyone who is hungry.”

To determine the amount of residents who are food insecure, the Map the Meal Gap team used poverty, unemployment, median income and other data at both the state local level. That coupled with responses from food insecure households provided enough data to the organization to determine most of these individuals need an additional $13.99 per week for seven months out of the year to cover their food needs. This amounts to a $424.36 shortfall per person each year.

Findings of the study are based on statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Census Bureau and food price data from The Nielsen Company. The study was supported by The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Nielsen.

For more data from the report visit Feeding America’s website at www.feedingamerica.org.

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1 in 6 go hungry in Parker County

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