Missouri Hunger Atlas 2010
Abstract
According to the US Department of Agriculture, 15.8 percent of Missouri's nearly six million residents were food insecure in 2008. This suggests that 934,034 residents faced uncertainty in acquiring sufficient food for their household. Further, the USDA estimates that 5.8 percent of the population, or roughly 344,000 Missourians, had very low food security (formerly food insecure with hunger) in 2008, suggesting they experienced hunger. Trends in food insecurity and hunger are not positive ones for our state, as current averages for both measures have continuously increased over the first decade of this century. Public spending on hunger programs (e.g., SNAP/Food Stamps) totaled more than 1.4 billion dollars in 2008. The Missouri Hunger Atlas 2010is a collaborative effort of University of Missouri faculty to document, at the county-level, the breadth and extent of hunger need, and the performance of
public and private programs in meeting that need.