Video story by Charlotte Zhao
Written story by Collin Tadlock
Graphics by Isabelle DeCamillis
No one is immune from hunger.
Most families in North Carolina are a missed paycheck or family emergency away from facing food insecurity in some way. Child food insecurity is one of the most significant issues facing the state of North Carolina, with nearly one in six children experiencing some form of hunger or malnutrition.
Though many may not realize the disparities that exist in the state, people face hunger in every county and congressional district in North Carolina.
According to a Feeding America report in 2020, the state had the 12th highest rate of child food insecurity in the United States, but has since fallen to ninth in the nation.
With pandemic-related food programs ending with the national public health emergency in May, there are a number of organizations focused on the mission of providing basic nutritional need and education for food-insecure children in North Carolina.
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the “lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Income, unemployment and poverty all affect whether a family is deemed food insecure, and if they are able to receive government-funded programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced in March that extra federal food benefits would cease by the end of the month and would return to pre-pandemic levels.
These ceased benefits include the federal program enacted in 2020 that provided all students with the option of free lunch that served as a food safety net as the pandemic worsened.
Paul Koh is the Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services for the Wake County Public School System, and explained his understanding of what is considered food insecurity.
“We all need to eat, we all need water, we all need shelter,” Koh said. “I think food insecurity is when people can’t get those needs met of just basic nutrition.”
Childhood food insecurity can have a wide range of negative effects, including physical health problems, developmental delays, and behavioral issues, which can lead to lower academic achievement in the long term.
With over 160,000 students enrolled across the county, the Wake County Public School System is the largest in the state, providing education for families with a variety of differing incomes: from mobile-home developments in smaller towns like Wendell and Roseville to wealthy, suburban neighborhoods in Raleigh and Wake Forest.
Koh also explained that most families experiencing food insecurity are also experiencing “basic needs insecurity” in North Carolina, which was exacerbated through the pandemic.
Working in the school system since 2019, he also mentioned that a significant number of Wake County students are eligible for free and reduced lunch based on their families’ income. This eligibility for school food assistance also helps the school system identify the number of low-income families in the county.
With 14 percent of children in Wake County identified as food insecure, Koh said there are also broader issues of poverty and the need for more income-based assistance in the county and state.
“There’s areas in the northwest of [Wake] county that maybe not everybody knows about, but specific neighborhoods and streets that have families and communities that have more need than we think that are hidden by all of our fancy subdivisions and houses,” Koh said.
On top of the struggle of identifying the families who are considered food insecure, there is a certain stereotype surrounding families admitting their needs for food-based assistance. Koh explained that when making decisions for his school system, it is important to look at the data rather than accessing situations based on stereotypes.
“Food insecurity is not something that we saw that only affected the Black community or the Latino community or only certain communities,” Koh said. “It kind of cut across all races and then depending on what those situations were, people still had needs.”
Carolina Hunger Initiative
While food insecurity continues to threaten families across North Carolina, there are a number of organizations fighting to end childhood hunger in the state.
Based at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, the Carolina Hunger Initiative is focused on expanding access to healthy meals year-round for food-insecure families and their children.
Andrew Harrell is the communications manager for the program, and is responsible for communicating with school systems, community organizations and food banks that assist with feeding children.
Ever since the initiative was started in 2011 as part of the “No Kid Hungry” campaign in North Carolina, Harrell said the team has been focused on fighting child hunger in the state. According to Harrell, out of over 1.5 million public school students in North Carolina, roughly 60 percent are food insecure.
“The current state of child hunger and need is a little worse because we are seeing those [pandemic-related] programs drop off an end on an emergency level, and at the same time, we’re seeing families deal with inflation,” Harrell said.
The initiative is not only focused on increasing access to healthy food for North Carolinians, Harrell also mentioned the importance of addressing equity issues that affect food insecurity at the state level.
“A lot of our work is trying to, just as a first step, even the playing field and create a more equitable food system, especially in schools, by making those meals available to families at no costs for all students,” Harrell said.
Along with their work on food insecurity in the state, Carolina Hunger Initiative is also a coalition leader in School Meals for All NC, which is focused on providing school meals at no-cost for all public school students.
The coalition partners with statewide organizations and focuses on the benefits of having no-cost food accessibility in public school systems. According to their website, a study conducted in North Carolina showed that schools that offer no-cost breakfast and lunch are more likely to have high performance grades and meet growth targets.
“We know there’s huge academic benefits to eating school meals, we know there are social and emotional benefits, we know there are benefits to local economy, and these aren’t just for the students who need the meals,” Harrell said. “These are for every student in the classroom that’s getting that nutritional meal.”
Earlier this month, Carolina Hunger Initiative partnered with the UNC Center for Health and Disease Prevention to sponsor “Que for the Kids,” an annual fundraiser hosted by EATS 101, a highly popular interdisciplinary course that focuses on food, culture and sustainability. 100 percent of proceeds raised from the fundraiser will go toward fighting food insecurity in the state, as part of the No Kid Hungry NC Campaign.
Serenity Bennett is a senior biology major at UNC-CH currently enrolled in EATS 101 and explained why the issue of food insecurity is so near to her heart.
Growing up, Bennett lived in both a “food desert,” which is described as an area that is difficult to buy affordable food. Even in a food desert, she also found herself in a “food swamp.”
The term food swamp was coined more than a decade ago to describe communities with little access to healthy options and a “swamp” of unhealthy options such as fast food restaurants and convenience stores.
Bennett also mentioned that food insecurity is much more prevalent than we think, explaining that being food insecure doesn’t always mean low-income.
“Elders experience food insecurity, students on college campuses experience food insecurity,” Bennett said. “If you live in a rural area, it can be any age, and you’ll experience food insecurity, so I think it’s a lot more prominent than people realize.
Tamara Baker, Project and Communications Director of Carolina Hunger Initiative, agreed with Baker that people have preconceived ideas of what food insecurity “looks like,” unaware that it exists in their neighborhoods and towns.
“We especially care about the programs that are part of the federal assistance nutrition programs,” Baker said. “These programs are funded through our tax dollars, but are way underutilized in North Carolina.”
Baker mentioned that the issue of food insecurity worsens in rural parts of the state, with many children rarely having basic nutritional needs other than the school meals they are provided.
“It looks different – It may be the child who came to school that morning and didn’t have anything since they were at school the day before,” Baker said. “If it’s Monday, they really might not have had a healthy choice in meals since they were at school on Friday at lunch.”
Future Steps
Harrell went over other initiatives that the program is working on, including a “Breakfast after the Bell” program dedicated to supplying breakfast between first and second period in public schools, in order to give every student a chance to eat a nutritious breakfast.
“With school breakfast, we’ve made a lot of strides in the adaptation of those effective policies and with the awareness of people like teachers and principals who might not consider school meals part of their world,” Harrell said.
“[Everyone] has begun to see how that fundamental building block is really essential for helping kids learn.”
According to Harrell, food insecurity will continue to persist until legislators take a “multifaceted approach” to addressing insecurity in the state. Until then, people interested in joining the fight against hunger in the state can start at their local levels. He also noted the importance of community involvement in school meals, making sure every child has access to healthy alternatives.
“One simple, surprising way to fight food insecurity and increase the quality of school meals is just by participating in them,” Harrell said. “With greater participation come greater meals.”
