Merced County one of highest percentages of hungry kids in the state, report shows

Merced County has one of the largest percentages of hungry children in California, according to a recent report from Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization.

The study reported that about 21,870 or 27.3 percent of children in Merced County don’t have access to enough food. That percentage was third worst in California. Only Imperial County and Siskiyou County reported larger percentages of hungry children, placing Merced County among the top 10 percent in the nation with the largest percentages of hungry children, according to the report.

The report, Map the Meal Gap 2017, used data from 2015 in its findings regarding “food insecurity,” an academic term defining populations with limited access to food, especially nutritious food.

Hunger has historically been seen as more of an urban problem, the study said, but recent findings show rural counties, like Merced, have a greater percentage of hungry kids.

Merced County’s ranking in the study did not surprise the executive director of the Merced County Food Bank, Bill Gibbs, “because we see it every day,” he said.

“Child hunger is an important issue and much more common than people think it is,” Gibbs added. “It’s difficult for hungry children to focus on schoolwork. In the end that impacts all of us.”

Children in rural communities who live in low-income households have less access to nutritional foods, according to the report.

“Poverty and hunger go hand in hand,” Gibbs said. “Hunger doesn’t exist in isolation.”

More than half of people in Merced County, 53.1 percent, live under the Federal Poverty Line, according to the 2016 Community Health Assessment, from the Merced County Department of Public Health. The assessment also reported that two out of every three children in Merced County live in poverty.

The best way to address food insecurity is to address poverty overall, said Kathleen Grassi, director of the Merced County Department of Public Health. Increasing education, training and employment opportunities would also help the issue, she said.

The effects of so many children with limited access to nutritional food can be long-lasting not only for the children and their families but for the communities in which they live, said Elaine Soriano, a pediatrician and regional director for Golden Valley Health Centers in Modesto.

Poor families frequently are forced to feed their children the most affordable food, not the most nutritious, Soriano said. Eating cheaper, less nutritious food contributes to obesity, she said, and overweight children are more likely be obese as adults.

Malnourishment has been linked to poor performance in school and, consequently, lower-paying jobs later in life, Soriano said. Hungry students also can have a greater number of health issues and lower self-esteem.

The report found that federal assistance programs for low-income households, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, “serve as the first line of defense against hunger,” but because the programs use income as an eligibility requirement not everyone who needs help can get it.

In Merced County about 85 percent of children who are living in households without enough food are eligible for federal food assistance programs, according to data from Feeding America, leaving about 15 percent of children behind.

During the summer months school district in Merced County participate in Summer Feeding Programs, that provides children ages 18 and younger with free breakfast and lunch meals at various sites Monday through Friday.

Nutrition officials at the Merced City School District have said the program helps to fill the gap when children aren’t in school, especially for families who rely on schools to feed their children.

This fall, the Merced County Food Bank hopes to bring a Kids Backpack Program to the community, Gibbs said, that aims to provide children with food during the weekend or during school breaks.

“The summer meals program ended last month and some local kids aren’t getting food,” he said. “We want to bridge that gap and pass out food to the kids who need it most.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2017 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Merced County one of highest percentages of hungry kids in the state, report shows."