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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.

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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.

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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.

Single Moms, Families of Color Most Affected by Hunger in 2020

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Thursday, September 16, 2021   

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The rate of people experiencing hunger in Iowa and across the U.S. was steady during 2020, according to initial data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The agency's report also showed people of color and low-income workers have seen food insecurity at dramatically higher rates during the pandemic.

Geri Henchy, director of nutrition policy for the Food Research and Action Center, said 40% of single-parent households headed by women did not know where their next meal was coming from.

"You know, a lot of single moms were working at jobs that you couldn't do at home," Henchy recounted. "They lost their jobs during COVID and some of them can't find child care, so they can go back to work. And so, all of this results in these households really struggling to put enough food on the table."

Government aid packages boosting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other programs, passed with bipartisan support, are credited for keeping overall hunger rates steady as the economy shed some 20 million jobs.

Critics of proposals in Congress to permanently expand supports for struggling families argued additional spending is not needed, because the overall food-insecurity rate remained at just over 10% of U.S. households.

Henchy is not sure the initial figures tell the whole story, in part because getting people to respond to door-to-door surveyors during a health crisis was no easy feat. Even if overall hunger rates did remain steady, Henchy argued the need remains significant.

"There were already unacceptably high rates of food insecurity in the U.S.," Henchy contended. "And those have continued. So, that's 38 million hungry people and hungry households."

Communities of color were also disproportionately affected in 2020. Henchy noted Black households experienced hunger at three times the rate of white households.

"Basically, 22% of Black families and 17% of Latinx households were impacted by food insecurity," Henchy reported. "And that's considerably higher than the rate of white households, which was only 7%."

Groups like the American Heart Association have also pointed out that lack of access to nutritious foods can lead to increased risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer.


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