By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — All 105 Kansas counties saw food insecurity increase among children between 2021 and 2022, according to a statewide report from a child advocacy group.
According to Kansas Action for Children, a Topeka-based nonprofit, 2022 saw the highest spike in food insecurity among children in the past decade. Kids in northeastern Kansas were particularly hard-hit because of high food costs and limited access to adequate and nutritious food in the area. KAC attributed the nearly six percentage point increase from 2021 to the end of pandemic-era programs that expanded eligibility for government assistance programs.
One in five Kansas children in 2022 experienced food insecurity, which is the “economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hunger is a byproduct of food insecurity.
The group’s 2024 Kansas Kids Count Data Book, warns that food insecurity will increase if Kansans don’t learn lessons from the pandemic.
“In 2021, we saw how pandemic-era programs improved many outcomes for Kansas kids. But with those programs being temporary, so was much of that progress,” said John Wilson, the president and chief executive officer of KAC.
The report is the local extension of a national Kids Count Data Book, developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based private foundation focused on children and families and begun by creator of UPS, Jim Casey, in 1948. It dissects economic, education and health outcomes among children and families from local, state and national data sources.
“The newest data underscores the need for decision-makers to do everything they can to help kids,” Wilson said. “And if leaders don’t act soon, more Kansas families will suffer.”
The report also found that reading proficiency among 8th graders was at its lowest in recent history, and 31% of Kansas children are falling behind in math. High school graduation rates were at a 10-year high. About 49% of children were enrolled in a free or reduced-price lunch program in 2022, which was a nearly three percentage point jump from 2021 and the highest percentage since 2017.
The number of Kansas children living in poverty was at a 10-year low in 2022, with 13% of children living below the federal poverty level compared with 19% in 2012, according to the report. Median household income among Kansas families has steadily increased in the past 10 years, but disparities exist by race. Black households were compensated nearly half as much as white households in Kansas.
The hourly minimum wage in Kansas is $7.25, but, according to the report, the University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research said a family of four with two working adults needs a minimum wage of at least $15 per hour to meet their family’s basic needs.
“Families facing food challenges must often choose between buying groceries and paying rent, utilities, or other basic necessities,” said KAC spokeswoman Jessica Herrera Russell in a Tuesday news release.
The number of families spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs spiked in 2022. The number of children in those housing cost burdened households increased from an estimated 139,000 in 2021 to about 156,000 in 2022, the report found. These burdens can be mitigated, it argued, by lowering property taxes or offering property tax refunds and by implementing local inclusionary zoning and renter protection policies.
Launched in July 2020, Kansas Reflector is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Kansas Reflector retains full editorial independence
