In Kentucky, nearly one in five children does not know where his or her next meal will come from.

Although the rate of food insecurity has been on a downward trend in Kentucky over the last three years, according to Feeding America’s 2019 Map the Meal Gap study, the rate remains more severe for children than adults. Kentucky has a child food insecurity rate of 18.4 percent, compared to the 17 percent national average, according to the study. The overall food insecurity rates are lower at 14.9 percent in Kentucky and 12.5 percent nationwide.

Tamara Sandberg, executive director of Feeding Kentucky – which works with food banks and other partners across the state to fight hunger – said poverty, which is more widespread in Kentucky than in many other states, is a key contributor.

“Hunger is a symptom of poverty and Kentucky’s poverty and unemployment rates continue to be higher than the national average,” she said.

Despite this, Sandberg said she’s encouraged by the state’s declining food insecurity rates.

“The fact that it’s in a downward trend really does give us hope,” she said.

According to Feeding America’s data, Kentucky’s 18.4 percent child food insecurity rate in 2017, the most recent year with available data, is down from 20 percent in 2015.

Feeding America’s data provides county-by-county rates, which reveal that the state’s most heavily-impacted counties are in the Appalachian region, with Magoffin County having the highest rate of child food insecurity at 31.5 percent.

In the western portion of the state, numbers tend not to be quite as high but typically remain above the national average.

Warren County’s rate of child food insecurity is 17.3 percent, Barren’s is 21.2 percent, Allen’s is 19.2 percent, Simpson’s is 19.7 percent, Logan’s is 17.2 percent, Butler’s is 22.6 percent, Edmonson’s is 20 percent and Hart’s is 19.4 percent.

Each of these numbers is at least 2 percentage points higher than the overall food insecurity rate, the data shows.

As for why food insecurity rates are consistently more severe for children, Sandberg said “that is the million-dollar question that we grapple with.” She added children often being cut off from school-provided meal assistance during the summer is likely a key factor.

Todd Hazel, director of student services for Warren County Public Schools, noted the detrimental effects hunger can have on a child, such as stifling their development and interrupting their attempts to learn.

“When our kids come to school hungry, they can’t learn,” he said. “They can’t do what they need to do for the day.”

Hazel also suspects food insecurity among children is more severe during the summer.

“They know when they come to school they’re going to get breakfast and lunch every day,” he said. Hazel said WCPS has a program in place that delivers food to families in need on a repurposed bus during the summer.

Liz Bernard, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Bowling Green, said many of the children the organization regularly serves do not have food to eat outside their time at the club and at school.

“It is still a very pressing issue,” she said. “Many of our club members definitely deal with food insecurity.”

According to Bernard, the Boys & Girls Club has about 290 registered members and typically serves 150 to 160 of them each day after school.

Those numbers go up noticeably during the summer, when meals provided by local school districts are not as readily available, Bernard said. The club’s staff can expect about 200 members to show up each weekday during the summer.

During the school year, the club provides members with a snack and attempts to serve them something hot at least three times a week, she said.

“For a lot of them, that is the last meal they’ll have for the day,” she said.

Jamie Sizemore, executive director of Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland in Elizabethtown, one of the Kentucky Association of Food Banks’ regional hubs that distributes food to numerous pantries in 42 western Kentucky counties, said the problem stems from poverty and structural inequality – such as people who need financial help feeding their families, particularly in the wake of an illness or surgery, not qualifying for benefits.

“A lot of them, they just don’t qualify (for federal aid),” she said. “They don’t qualify for benefits but they truly are the working poor.”

The best ways for society to combat food insecurity are to make wide-scale systemic changes like increasing the minimum wage and providing more affordable housing, job training and better drug recovery programs, Sizemore said.

“We’ve got to dig down as a society to the root causes of food insecurity,” she said.

Sizemore did, however, praise the state’s efforts to combat food insecurity, particularly Farms to Food Banks, a Department of Agriculture program that reimburses farmers for the cost of picking, packaging and transporting produce to the nearest major food bank that retailers would otherwise reject due to cosmetic blemishes.