PROVIDENCE — Low-income residents in Rhode Island are annually missing 11.3 million meals and closing such a gap will require “significant investment” in federal nutrition programs and at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, according to the food bank’s latest Status Report on Hunger in Rhode Island issued Monday.
The number of missed meals noted in the food bank’s 2019 report is approximately one-third of what the nonprofit food agency said in 2016, stating that 33.2 million meals, or 15% of all meals needed annually, went missing at the time. But despite low-income families utilizing government-assisted programs – such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC – 6% of all meals needed to feed such families in Rhode Island are being missed, the report states.
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Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff told PBN Monday that there are more missing meals in communities with high numbers of households with incomes below poverty. Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick and Woonsocket are communities Schiff noted as having high-poverty areas.
“Those are also the areas where more of or food pantries and meal sites are located to help meet the need,” Schiff said.
Data within the status report run in concert with the hunger survey report that the organization released last month. The missed meals also coincides with poor health in people who go hungry, with the status report noting health care costs with food insecurity equal $160 million per year in Rhode Island.
The annual report also reiterates that more than 11,000 Rhode Islanders, 5,000 of them being children, may lose SNAP benefits if the Trump administration enacts multiple policy changes that will limit benefit eligibility. In its action steps, the food bank urges the community to submit comments to regulations.gov to tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture that cutting SNAP benefits “would increase food security and hunger” in the state.
Schiff also said the R.I. Department of Human Services “has improved” the processing of SNAP applications through the United Health Infrastructure Project, or UHIP, in the past year. In the food bank’s 2017 report, the organization noted that SNAP enrollment dropped by 12% at the time since the troubled system launched in 2016, as well as saw a significant processing backlog and lost applications.
The state also will launch eWIC, which will substitute an electronic benefits transfer card for vouchers and replaces office visits with online courses. The report states there are 21,200 WIC participants in Rhode Island, but only 46% of eligible households are participating because WIC requires frequent office visits and families have difficulty getting to the office on public transportation.
Schiff said eWIC will start rolling out to select communities in January 2020 and it will be available statewide in July 2020.
The state is also encouraging schools to help close the hunger gap, including the R.I. Department of Education suggesting schools adopt “new service models” for breakfast. However, “many” schools, according to the report, serve breakfast before school begins and creates a challenge for students to get their first meal of the day.
Last year, the report states, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo proposed her “No Student Hungry” legislation requiring all schools in high-poverty districts to provide what she calls “breakfast after the bell.” The state’s General Assembly did not approve the proposed legislation.
Schiff said the food bank has not heard whether or not Raimondo will reintroduce the legislation, and suggests residents the governor’s office and their state legislators to “voice their support for this legislation.”
James Bessette is the PBN special sections editor. Email him at Research@PBN.com.
