Study: Southern Missouri has highest food insecurity rates

(Learfield) – Food pantries and advocacy groups are starting to unpack the newly-released Missouri Hunger Atlas. Bill McKelvey of Mizzou Extension says there are some familiar trends.

“The Mizzou Extension study is typically used by groups trying to improve food access. “This year’s study is consistent with others, showing rising demand.

“Some of these issues and some of these higher rates of food insecurity historically affect the same counties and the same regions of our state to a greater degree than others.”

He says Missouri’s childhood food insecurity rate is around 18-percent, a few points higher than the statewide average, and that the Atlas shows larger concerns about food access in southern Missouri.

“The southern part of the state tends to fare worse than the northern part of the state, especially Southeast Missouri, and kind of that southeast portion of the Ozarks. But then really kind of going all the way across the southern third of the state.”