{"id":83218,"date":"2025-07-22T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83218\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:58:14","slug":"texas-one-of-the-top-states-for-child-food-insecurity-curious-texas-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83218\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas one of the top states for child food insecurity, Curious Texas finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 14 million children in the U.S. faced food insecurity<\/a> in 2023. But what\u2019s it like in Texas?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what reader John Carter wrote into Curious Texas<\/a> wanting to know: \u201cHow does child hunger in Texas compare to other states? What are the leading agencies that are working to provide food for hungry children?\u201d<\/p>\n

Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the lack of consistent access to adequate, safe, nutritious food, or the inability to obtain food in socially acceptable ways. <\/p>\n

Common reasons for food insecurity are poverty, lack of affordable housing and race-based discrimination, according to Feeding America<\/a>. Child hunger can lead to increased health problems, developmental differences, poor academic performance and more adverse outcomes.<\/p>\n

Curious Texas<\/p>\n

You ask, we investigate. Follow the investigations and see what our journalists uncover in North Texas and across the state.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s tackle that first question.<\/p>\n

Related:The loss of hope as Abbott vetoes funding for a summer lunch program<\/a><\/p>\n

The organization Feeding America provides nationwide data on food insecurity, and the most recent data publicly available is for 2023.<\/p>\n

According to that data, Texas<\/a> was tied with Alabama at No. 5 for states with the highest share of food-insecure children. Their rates were 22.2%, which was almost two percentage points below the states at the No. 1 spot (Arkansas and Oklahoma).<\/p>\n

That amounts to nearly 1.7 million Texas children experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n

This map shows the 2023 food insecurity rate for children in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the states with the highest rates have improved or worsened since 2019.<\/p>\n

The rates for Texas and other key states followed a similar trend: a decline from 2019 to 2021, a significant spike in 2022, and some decrease in 2023.<\/p>\n

Now, for the second question: Who\u2019s providing food to hungry children?<\/p>\n

Regionally, the North Texas Food Bank<\/a> distributes food through a network of hundreds of partners across 12 counties, according to its website<\/a>. The organization has food assistance programs specifically for children and for seniors. The children-focused programs ensure students have access to food outside of school during weekends and summers, and there\u2019s a program that maintains community pantries at schools.<\/p>\n

\"DallasDallas Independent School District staff members load bags of food into a car on July 16, 2025, at Eddie Bernice Johnson Elementary in Wilmer. Dallas ISD offers seven days worth of free meals every Wednesday in July for kids 18 and under or 21 and under for those with disabilities.(Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

Additionally, the USDA operates the National School Lunch Program in public schools, nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions at the high school level and below, according to the USDA website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

State agencies work with schools to administer the program. Participating schools receive cash subsidies and approved food for each meal served. In exchange, schools must serve meals that meet federal requirements and offer them at a free or reduced price to all eligible children. Eligibility varies by district or school.<\/p>\n

Dallas ISD offers school meals to all students regardless of family income level, according to its website<\/a>. In addition to breakfast and lunch, some schools offer meals after school and to students participating in certain educational programs on Saturdays. Meals are also available during Thanksgiving, winter, spring and summer breaks.<\/p>\n

\"DallasDallas ISD staff member Delmy Campos picks up bags of food to distribute on July 16, 2025, at Eddie Bernice Johnson Elementary in Wilmer. (Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

Families can also apply for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, formerly known as \u201cfood stamps.\u201d <\/p>\n

Every state has its own eligibility requirements and application process. The full eligibility requirements and rules for Texans can be found on the Texas Health and Human Services website<\/a>. People can apply online<\/a> through the Your Texas Benefits portal. The North Texas Food Bank offers a service<\/a> for case assistants to help clients fill out applications, check the status of applications and answer questions about SNAP.<\/p>\n

\"DallasDallas ISD staff members wave as a driver pulls over to get bags of food on July 16, 2025, at Eddie Bernice Johnson Elementary in Wilmer. (Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 14 million children in the U.S. faced food insecurity in 2023. But what\u2019s it like in Texas?…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,347,56631,1596,7712,11644,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-83218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-curious-texas","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-fortworth","13":"tag-food-insecurity","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114897007640038370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}