By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Not having enough to eat, or not being sure of where the next meal will come from, has broader implications than just hunger.
The most recent issue of Ohio Population News from the Bowling Green State University based Center for Family & Demographic Research, reports that: “Children’s experiences with food insufficiency is a critical and growing problem generating further inequities in children’s well-being. Research consistently shows that when children do not have enough food, their health and well-being suffer.”
And those problems exacerbate disparities among ethnic minorities and low-income families.
Valerie Schweizer, the graduate student in sociology who wrote the report, said she was struck by the greater prevalence of food insufficiency among Hispanics and African-Americans. “I know, or least I should have known, these racial gaps were present, but it was different to see it so starkly, especially in Ohio, somewhere I’ve lived my whole life,” Schweizer, who grew up in Alliance, said.
The report draws on four national surveys for its data as well as scholarship, including work by Kelly Balistreri, the BGSU faculty member who assigned the project to Schweizer.
The report uses the term “food insufficiency” because it offers a broader definition than “food insecurity.” Schweizer writes: “Those who ‘experience food insufficiency’ indicated that ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ they did not get enough food to eat. A family is at risk for food insufficiency if they indicated being able to afford food but not always the kinds of food they should eat.”
The paper reports 19.6 percent, or one in five children in Ohio “is food insecure.” That’s higher than the national rate of 17 percent. Adding in those at risk, the number is 33.7 percent, more than the national average of 25.7 percent of children.
The rates, however, vary based on region of the state with the counties along the southeastern border experiencing rate of 23.1 to 27.2 percent. The county with the highest rate of food insecurity among children is Monroe County with 27.2 percent. The county with the least is Delaware County, just north of Columbus. Wood County has 16.2 to 18.7 percent.
Not surprisingly, those counties with higher unemployment rates tend to have higher rates of food insecurity.
But the problem isn’t only faced by people in poverty or who qualify for government nutrition programs. Just over half the children living in households at or below 199 percent of the federal poverty level experience or are at risk of food insufficiency. In order to get SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits a family must be at or below 130 percent of that line. To get WIC benefits, a supplemental food program for mothers, infants and children up to age 5, a family must be at or below 185 percent of the poverty line.
That leaves a lot of Ohio children, over 177,000 according to a Feeding America study, who are in food insufficient households but who are not eligible for these programs.
That lack of food security has consequences, the report finds.
They are more likely to have emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems. They are also more likely to be bullied.
Food insufficiency strikes Hispanic and African-Americans harder. While white children either lack food (5 percent) or at risk of it (25 percent), the same numbers are for Hispanic children, 18 percent food insufficient and 44 percent at risk, and for African-American children, 22 percent food insufficient, and 26 percent at risk.
“Food Insufficiency Among Ohio’s Children, 2016-2017” is the latest Ohio Population News issued by the Center for Family & Demographic Research. The National Center for Family & Marriage Research also at BGSU regularly issues Family Profiles.
