Largely due to its impoverished southeastern corner, Ohio has made its way into the top 10 hungriest states in the nation.
In 2010, Ohio was the sixth hungriest state with 16.4 percent of households experiencing “food insecurity,” according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Ohio is one of nine states that ended the year above the national average of 14.5 percent.
Food insecurity is reduced quality, variety or desirability of diet, according the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. The designation covers individuals who are physically hungry, as well as individuals who would not be able to pay for food if they had a financial crisis.
Athens County, which had a 20.9 percent poverty rating in 2010, outranks the worst state, Mississippi, by more than 1 percent, according to the USDA.
Athens County’s rating means one in five residents, as well as one in three children, qualify as food insecure, said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
The high demand for food puts tremendous stress on food banks across the county, said Lisa Roberts of Coolville’s Friends and Neighbors Community Choice.
“We are a Band-Aid on a wound that needs stitches,” Roberts said. “Continued budget cuts to programs are tying our hands more and more.”
Government programs such as welfare or food stamps do not take families out of food insecurity, Roberts said, adding that many officials and legislatures are even moving to raise the standards for welfare application.
“It is very important that we elect officials who place food and security at the top of their lists,” Roberts said. “It is one of the most important issues in Ohio.”
Although food pantries are at their busiest during winter and spring when warm weather and harvested crops are scarce, they are in constant need of extra help and donations, Roberts said.
“(The ranking) saddens me very much,” Roberts said. “We’ve been locked in poverty for decades, and we don’t know how to get out of there. I know there’s a solution, I know the problem can be solved, but I don’t know how.”
ld311710@ohiou.edu
