skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

COVID-19 Increases Number of Texas Children Going Hungry

play audio
Play

Tuesday, January 26, 2021   

AUSTIN, Texas -- More than two million children are suffering from food insecurity in Texas, where the rate has increased more than 7% since the start of the pandemic.

Harris County, which includes Houston, has 360,000 kids experiencing food insecurity.

Meredith Reid, Texas deputy director for Save the Children, said it's not just affecting urban areas, but also rural areas, which traditionally tend to be underserved.

"In Texas, one of our most rural communities, which is Zavala County; Zavala County has the fourth highest child food insecurity rate in the nation," Reid pointed out, where one in every two children experience food insecurity.

Upon taking office last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow states to increase SNAP benefits, or food stamps, to the lowest-income recipients.

Tamara Sandberg, U.S. advisor for food security and nutrition for Save the Children, noted the organization has distributed more than 200,000 boxes of food through the Farmers to Families Food Box Program offered by the USDA. She said that's about 30 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables, cooked meat, and dairy and milk products, in rural communities.

"But what we're seeing is just the amount of people who have never had to have help putting food on the table before that are really struggling because of this pandemic," Sandberg explained.

Hunger impacts children's school performance, and according to Reid, that has required growing new partnerships between nonprofits and school districts to get meals to kids.

"Developing partnerships with churches and other community organizations that are serving children so that now that we can collectively wrap our arms around it, you have to sometimes slow down to speed up, and we've been able to do that," Reid concluded.

Widespread school closures due to COVID-19 have affected many children, but especially the 30 million who rely on free or reduced-price meals.

Disclosure: Save the Children contributes to our fund for reporting on Children's Issues, Early Childhood Education, Education, and Poverty Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021