In the United States 15.4 percent of people live with food insecurity. Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to enough food to live a healthy life for all household members. This can mean uncertain availability of nutritional foods. This uncertainty is causing 1 of every 6 Americans to face the reality that they may not be able to provide for their next meal. There are programs that help, however, 26 percent of this food insecure population live above the poverty level and receive no government help.
Our first project community is in Fort Worth, TX:
In the state of Texas alone food insecurity is higher than the national average at 17 percent. In Fort Worth’s Tarrant county community food insecurity is at 18.1 percent. That is 2.7 percent above the national average covering a total of 340,620 people who are food insecure. Of these individuals 36 percent of them do not qualify for any government programs. This community is in needs roughly of 60 million meals annually to meet the current meal gap.
This is a huge task and no one can do it alone. Currently the Tarrant Area Food Bank serves 50,000 individuals weekly through their network of partner charities and 12 other surrounding counties. However there is still a lot more work that needs to be done. It will take the support of the community to change the face of hunger in our own backyard and fill the gap of food insecure individuals.