Maine ranks highest in New England for food insecurity

6 years ago

Every day more people go hungry in Maine than in any other New England state.

Nationwide, Maine is ranked as the seventh most food insecure, a designation that means residents lack access to the quantity and quality of food necessary for an active and healthy lifestyle.

These numbers mean that 16 percent of the state’s population is food insecure, including one out of every five children, according to data released in September 2017 by The United States Department of Agriculture.

It doesn’t have to — nor should it — be this way, according to Kristen Miale, president of The Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine, the state’s largest hunger relief organization.

Miale is going to talk about those USDA hunger statistics and what can be done to turn them around during her talk “Hunger in Maine: A Solvable Problem,” at the Camden Public Library next week.

To read the rest of “Maine ranks highest in New England for food insecurity,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Julia Bayly, please follow this link to the BDN online.