What is food insecurity? Food insecurity refers to a lack of healthy, accessible, and culturally-appropriate food sources. Food insecurity can be exacerbated by lack of resources like money, distance to the nearest grocery, and available transportation.

Watch this video to get a brief overview of food insecurity:

 

Watch a recent discussion on food security in North Carolina with representatives from UNC and TABLE: 

 

Click on the links below to explore issues of food security both locally and globally.

FOOD SECURITY ISSUES IN NORTH CAROLINA:

“Hunger and Poverty in North Carolina” — This source explains food insecurity, and how it impacts communities within NC.

“How Hungry is North Carolina?” — This source is an article that emphasizes the reality of food insecurity in NC, even though our economy is rooted in agriculture. It provides statistics regarding food insecurity, and raises awareness to these concerns.

“Increasing Healthy Food Access in Rural North Carolina Food Deserts” — This source is an article that discusses food insecurity in rural areas within NC, some of which lack access specifically to healthy foods.

“Food for Every Child: The Need for Healthy Food Access in North Carolina” — This source is a PDF page that discusses the lack of nutritious foods in certain areas within NC. It raises awareness to this issue by emphasizing that this issue will not only affect us, but will also affect our children.

“Healthy Food Access: Opening Doors to Healthy Food in North Carolina” — This source is a PDF page that provides a reasonable explanation for food insecurity in NC, and provides possible solutions to these issues.

“Mobile Grocery Store will Help Combat Food Insecurity in High Point” — This source is an article that discusses the Growing High Point initiative to increase access to healthy foods in High Point, NC.

“North Carolina Food Bank to Build New Wilmington Distribution Center” — This source is an article The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina will be creating a facility to alleviate food insecurity in this food desert.

FOOD SECURITY ISSUES ACROSS THE NATION AND GLOBE:

“The U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Research Strategy” — Read about how Feed the Future plans to face global food security challenges through research and development.

“Hunger and Poverty in Rural Areas” — Explore this link which discusses the challenges of rural hunger, food deserts, and how transportation in rural areas influences food systems. It also discusses how rates of unemployment are higher, which influences access to food of high quality.

“Toward Strategies for Ending Rural Hunger” — This resource provides stories of hope on how we can change and improve our food systems.

“The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” — The FAO provides multimedia resources, such as graphs, photos, and statistics, that you can explore to better understand issues of global hunger.

“Who Are the World’s Food Insecure? Identifying the Risk Factors of Food Insecurity Around the World” — The FAO’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is used to track and understand food insecurity on a global scale.

“Global Food Security Index” — Utilize this interactive map to see each country’s food security index score, based on the affordability, availability, quality and safety of food, as well as various risk factors. This resource uses relative indices among countries and does not consider regional patterns within countries.