LANSING, Mich. — One in every six Michigan children will go to bed hungry tonight. That’s enough kids to fill Spartan Stadium nearly five times.
This unsettling statistic and others are part of today’s release of Map the Meal Gap 2019, the latest report from Feeding America® on food insecurity and cost of food at the local level. The Food Bank Council of Michigan and its seven regional food banks rallied around the study’s release in its ongoing efforts to end food insecurity.
“I encourage everyone to visit the website, map.feedingamerica.org, to find out what hunger looks like in their community and get involved to be part of the solution,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. “One way is to tell Congress to invest in kids during Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation and increase access to food for kids during the summer. Your voice matters and we can make a difference.”
Map the Meal Gap 2019 reveals that food insecurity exists in every Michigan county. It also shows that children are more likely to be food insecure. In Michigan, the study reports that 15.9% of the state’s children are food insecure.
The study complements the findings in the Food Bank Council of Michigan’s Self-Sufficiency Standard that ensures the best data and analyses are available for Michigan families and individuals to make progress toward real economic security. The Standard calculates how much income a family must earn in order to meet basic needs, including housing, child care, food, health care, transportation, miscellaneous expenses and taxes.
“When a person is hungry, they only have one problem,” said Dr. Phil Knight, the Food Bank Council’s executive director. “I’m calling on all of you to join our movement to end food insecurity in Michigan. Together, we can make sure every Michigander has access to nutritious food every day.”
The Food Bank Council of Michigan is a member of Feeding America ‘s hunger-relief network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. They collectively provide food assistance to more than 40 million people in the U.S. struggling with hunger.
For more information on food insecurity in Michigan, visit www.fbcmich.org [fbcmich.org].
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