Food insecurity in Minnesota

I find it useful to visualize numbers like 1 in 10, and 1 in 6, in the context of my own neighborhood. Then I sort of mentally expand that, to try to get a better grasp of what such numbers really entail.

Then I think of the harvested fields I drove by, out in the country yesterday, and how much of that goes to waste because it's the greedheads' interests that of course need to be prioritized, in our dysfunctional, profits-over-people food system.

(Second Harvest Heartland CEO Allison) O’Toole said more than 1 in 10 Minnesotans are food insecure — meaning they lack regular access to quality, affordable food — and that 1 in 6 kids in the state is considered food insecure.

“It’s never been closer to any of us, and we are seeing record numbers of people who need help who have never had to ask for help,” O’Toole said. “And that’s why we’re really asking this entire community to help us make it OK for people to ask for help.”

And O’Toole said a hunger divide breaks along racial lines like never before.

“That is the fact that populations of color — African American, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian populations — are experiencing twice the levels of hunger that our white neighbors are, and that is getting worse every day,” she said. “It is unconscionable, and we are doing everything we can to reach the community in the highest need.” - MPR