See the Terrifying Rise of Food Insecurity for Missouri Families

If you live in Missouri and always know where your next meal will come from, you are blessed. Many in Missouri don't have the assurance of having enough food to eat and their numbers are on the rise on a terrifying trajectory.

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This is something I got curious about and decided to see how dire the situation is for food insecurity in Missouri. What I learned is now information frankly I wish I did not know. Many families in our state are in big trouble.

I found the following data from Feeding America. You might want to sit down for this.

In Missouri, 715,170 people are facing hunger - and of them 177,320 are children

Let's break it down to a simpler number. That translates into 1 out of every 9 Missouri adults faces hunger. For children in Missouri, those that are hungry are 1 out of every 8. Terrible.

This map shows you how close to home this hits. The darker green areas have food insecurity numbers from 23 to 35%.

The Missouri Department of Health shows that elderly residents in the state are especially vulnerable when it comes to knowing where their next meal will come from.

America's Health Rankings shows Missouri has one of the worst food insecurity problems in the country with an estimated 12% experiencing hunger problems.

Sadly, this is one of those problems that does not have an easy answer. The best thing you can do if you have enough to eat is to continue to support local food pantries and organizations like the Salvation Army who are working to meet that growing need every day.