A new study reveals 451,710 people in San Diego County are impacted by hunger, 22 percent are children.
In all, 15 percent of people across the county don’t know where their next meal is coming from, according to the Map the Meal Gap study by Feeding America.
The annual study analyzes household incomes and "food insecurity" county-by-county across the nation, revealing the availability of food and one’s access to it.
The county’s overall hunger rate decreased over last year when 459,180 people struggled with food insecurity, but the child hunger rate continues to rise. This year’s study found 163,780 children are food insecure, an increase from 162,320 last year and 1 percent higher than the national average.
More than a third of vulnerable children are not eligible for federal nutrition assistance, according to the study.
"We're distributing record amounts of food unlike anything I’ve seen in the history of Feeding America San Diego," said executive director Jennifer Gilmore.
Gilmore said recent cuts to CalFresh have taken a heavy toll on families they serve. She compared the growing crisis to distributing food during an emergency, but for an extended period of time.
"And it’s hard to explain what that feels like," said Gilmore, "when you are constantly pushing your food resourcing department and your procurement folks to the brink to bring in every pound of food, to rescue as many pounds from grocery stores, to access every resource you have at a national level, to secure additional funding to pay for the transportation –- and you still don’t have enough.”
Imperial Valley, one of America's largest food-growing cities, has one of the highest hunger rates, with more than one-third of the total population, and close to 39 percent of children, struggling with hunger.
Nationwide, 49 million Americans are vulnerable to hunger.
