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One in Four Texas Children at Risk of Hunger

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Minjae Park, Texas Tribune)
One in four Texas children was at risk of going hungry in 2010, according to a study released Monday by Feeding America, a charity focused on relieving hunger.

The study found that 27.1 percent of Texas children face food insecurity, lacking consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition. That number places Texas 11th -highest among states and the District of Columbia in percentage of food-insecure children. The study also says that Zavala County in South Texas has the highest rate of food insecurity in the nation. Nearly half of the children there are at risk of hunger.

“This study highlights an unacceptable level of food insecurity among children,” said Celia Cole, chief executive of the Texas Food Bank Network, in a news release. “Hungry children are more likely to have poor grades and health deficiencies, and these problems translate into lost productivity and higher health care costs as they age. We cannot afford to ignore this problem.”

The study’s release by Feeding America, which says it supplies food to more than 37 million Americans, comes as the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture in April approved $33 billion in cuts over the next decade to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food stamp initiative that serves 46 million Americans, in a deficit-reducing measure passed last month by the Republican majority — including two Texas Republicans.

The federal SNAP program provides benefits to 3.6 million Texans, among them nearly 2 million children, or one in four Texas children, according to the Texas Food Bank Network
(Read more at the Texas Tribune)

Related: Schools Get Ready to Serve Summer Meals (KUHF Public Radio)

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