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    Thursday, October 31, 2024

    Food insecurity increases 23% in Connecticut, new study shows: 'That's a crisis'

    Hartford — Hunger has risen in Connecticut, according to data released on Wednesday by nonprofit Feeding America.

    The annual study, called "Map the Meal Gap" shows that 468,150 people experienced food insecurity in 2022, the latest year of data available. This is an increase of 23 percent compared to the previous year. The study also found that 112,600 children experienced food insecurity, up 34 percent from the previous study.

    In response, President and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare Jason Jakubowski joined a group of legislators and community members that gathered in Hartford on Wednesday to discuss the results and advocate for bringing back a bill that would add funding to the Connecticut Nutrition Assistance Program next legislative season.

    "Today is a national release and basically (the report) confirms exactly what we have seen on the ground and what our pantries have been seeing for the last for the last several months," he said.

    He explained that Feeding America uses publicly available data from federal agencies including the USDA, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to analyze the relationships between food insecurity and other factors like unemployment, poverty, homeownership and income.

    He said that the pantry partners with 600 food banks to help address food insecurity but needs more funding.

    He spoke in favor of House Bill 5011, a bipartisan bill that would allocate $10 million to fund the Connecticut Nutrition Assistance Program. The bill was introduced this legislative session by state Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, D- Avon, and state Sen. Henri Martin, R-Bristol. It had 58 co-sponsors from both parties, but did not pass the finance committee or make it to the house floor and so died.

    "Here in the richest state in the country, one in every six children don't know where their next meal is coming from," he said. "Can't we all agree, like this bipartisan group of legislators has, that here in Connecticut in the year 2024 that is just simply unacceptable?"

    Pantry Director Larry Chiucarello from the Plymouth Community Food Pantry echoed Jakubowski.

    He said he is seeing a growing number of people using his pantry because of rising food costs — particularly seniors living on limited incomes and working families who can't afford to feed their children. His pantry works with CT Foodshare to provide healthy meals but said that protein, including beef, is hard to afford and more funding is needed.

    "Our budgets are going up now. And then there's this void where Connecticut Nutrition Assistance Program and donors used to fill. That used to be beef and other assorted things; that's nowhere to be found," he said. "The state of Connecticut needs to step up and do more."

    Christian Duborg works as food and nutrition policy analyst with the Connecticut General Assembly and said food insecurity is more about hunger. He pointed to studies that found food insecure children are more likely to have slower cognitive development, lower academic performance, more absences, more tardies and more behavioral incidents.

    For adults, he said that food insecurity increases the risk for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. This increase particularly affects Black and Latino residents as the data also shows one out every four experience food insecurity, compared to one out of 11 white residents.

    "If nearly half a million people are experiencing that (food insecurity) every day, that's a crisis," Duborg said. "Not only is this food insecurity a massive issue in its own right, but it's also an education issue and a health care issue and a housing issue and so many other areas."

    DeGraw said she hopes to reintroduce the bill next legislative session with even more bipartisan support.

    "The data should not surprise us; but it should move us forward into action," she said.

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