by Megan Valandingham
In March of 2024, Bobby Chumley, a local food pantry coordinator, shared his thoughts on food insecurity in the surrounding community of Claiborne County that is helped by New Salem Baptist Church. When asked again, he shared a story about his experience with child hunger and food insecurity during summer.
Chumley said:
"We drive the church van during Vacation Bible School, and one time there were about three of four brothers and sisters. We dropped them off at their house, and the church, you know, hands out paper bags filled with food, fruit, sandwiches, stuff like that. Well, they left their bags in the van, and we were about to pull out of the driveway when one of the boys came running out, yelling. We stopped and asked him what it was, and he grabbed the bags and said, "That's our dinner for tomorrow."
According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, of the 26.3 million residents of Appalachia, about 3.4 million of them are food insecure, with Central Appalachia 4.6 having the highest concentration of food insecurity, with 17.5%, or 4.6 million people in the population. Among the child residents, about 900,000, or 1 in 6 children, are food insecure. Central Appalachia has the highest rate at 21.2% or 5.6 million child residents.
And now, with summer approaching and schools letting out, about 1 in 5 American children are about to lose up to two meals a day, for the next two to three months. A 'Summer Nutrition Gap,' happens when schools let out, and millions of children lose access to school breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that they receive during the regular school year.
"Hunger does not take a break," says the Food Research & Action Center.
JoLynn Phillips, a food pantry coordinator with The Harbor, a church in Campbell County, Tennessee, shared on program that her food pantry takes part in.
"The Backpack Food Ministry is where they pack two hundred and fifty backpacks a week to distribute to local schools for the children to take home," Phillips says.
So, what can be done to help? In Tennessee, The Summer Food Service Program offers meals and snacks to the children of low-income areas during the three months of summer. Local faith-based and federally-funded food pantries continue operations to distribute basic meals for the families of the Appalachian region. And individuals, with the means to do so, can help food insecurity by volunteering for programs to help deliver food to households who require food assistance.
"Let us march on poverty until no American parent has to skip a meal so that their children may eat," Martin Luther King Jr.
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