ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - A new report from the USDA finds the number of households experiencing food insecurity has dropped drastically in the United States, but it's rising across the commonwealth.
The latest numbers show the rate is down 2 percent, but 42 million Americans still struggle with hunger.
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The 2015 numbers represent a significant decline from 2014, with the rate declining from 15.4 to 13.4 percent.
"These numbers of food-insecure households are better than the last few years, but they are still above pre-recession levels," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). "We know what it takes to end hunger in this country, so there can be no more excuses. More must be done to raise employment rates and wages, and to protect and strengthen federal nutrition programs to ensure more low-income Americans get the nutrition they need for their health and well-being.
Hunger continues to be a struggle millions of Americans face each year. While new findings from the USDA show that the number of those facing food insecurity nationally is declining, that's not the case in Virginia.
"For us, that's still a struggle. There are still families that are struggling to put food on their tables," Irvine said.
Governor Terry McAuliffe said he's pushing for schools to take advantage of federal money to offer free meals to children.
"We can provide these nourishing breakfasts to our children. Some schools aren't doing it yet; they view it as an inconvenience. I don't," McAuliffe said. He said they are working with school superintendents across the state to start implementing those programs that would be of no cost to the school system.
The number of those facing food insecurity has risen in Virginia from 9.2 percent to 9.8 percent, according to studies by Feeding America Southwest Virginia.
Being a mostly rural area, Southwest Virginia is one of that hardest hit regions in the state. The region saw some decline from 13.4 percent to 13.1 percent of food insecurity.
That's one in eight people.
154,000 people in our area are considered food insecure. Most of the food that comes through FASWVA's Salem facility is sent to families. In recent years, they have seen an increase in the number of children and elderly who don't know where their next meal will come from.
"For us, in Southwest Virginia, actually eight localities experienced an increase in childhood food insecurity," Irvine said. "That's a struggle for us with resources as we continue to see the collapse of the coal mining industry and the other support industries that supports that chain."
In addition, Irvine says five localities in the region have higher than a 7 percent unemployment rate which is well above the 4 percent state average.
Hunger continues to be a problem that Feeding America along with government officials say isn't an easy fix, but will take a community to address.
"In virtually every respect, this hunger data reflects the struggles that tens of millions of Americans – and especially people of color, families with children, rural families and Southern families – are having to avoid deep hardship in their lives," Weill said.
Other national findings from the USDA report include:
- The rates of food insecurity were substantially higher than the national average for households with children headed by single women or single men, women and men living alone, and Black and Hispanic-headed households.
- The number of individuals in households that faced the deepest struggles with hunger – "very low food security" – was 4.6 percent in 2015.
- The number of children living in food insecure households in 2015 improved by more than 2 million, declining from 15.3 million in 2014 to 13.1 million in 2015, with the rate among children declining from 20.9 percent to 17.9 percent.
- Households in more rural areas are experiencing considerably deeper struggles with hunger compared to those inside metropolitan areas, with higher rates of food insecurity (15.4 percent compared to 12.2 percent), higher rates of food insecurity in households with children (20.5 percent compared to 15.9 percent), and higher rates of very low food security (6.1 percent compared to 4.9 percent).