Source: US News
According to a new report from Map the Meal Gap, food insecurity across the U.S. varies from county to county, but overall shows that more than 40 million Americans had inadequate access to healthy meals in 2017.
Though national data indicated that the the overall percentage of Americans who didn’t have access to food fell from 2016, it still remains higher than percentages recorded before the recession. Furthermore, there are some regions of the country in which food in insecurity percentages are high, at about 36% in the highest recorded region of Jefferson County, Mississippi, to below 3% in less affected regions.
Researchers found that 3,100 counties across the U.S. were impacted by food insecurity to some degree.
Furthermore, researchers found that regions that were heavily affected by food insecurity also had a higher percentage of individuals who were living with diabetes or other health problems.
In addition to posing health problems, food insecurity can create other major problems in an affected person’s life, such as creating a greater financial burden if that person requires expensive health treatments or health care.
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