NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Child hunger is on the rise across Tennessee, and advocates say in communities far from interstate highways, families are struggling to access resources.

In some rural counties, there has been an increase in the number of children who are going without meals of 10% or greater.

Chapple Osborne-Arnold, Tennessee deputy director for Save the Children, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working with partners for its Farmers to Families Food Box Program who can get food into the hands of residents.

She pointed out in remote areas, there is little infrastructure and few resources for organizing food distribution.

"And that is where we step in," Osborne-Arnold explained. "So, we partner with the produce companies to set a schedule up and we tell them which days we want truckloads delivered, and we coordinate the volunteers and the staff on the ground."

Osborne-Arnold noted distributing food to a central location by truck is easier to adapt to rural communities, which tend to lack food banks or food-distribution warehouses. Even if a food bank is local, residents might be unable to get to it because of transportation barriers.

She pointed out her organization is working in east Tennessee counties to continue distributing meals through the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, and said last fall around 29,000 boxes were delivered.

Tamara Sandberg, U.S. advisor for food security and nutrition at Save the Children, said the spike in child hunger seen in rural regions will likely have long-term consequences.

"And we're very concerned," Sandberg remarked. "This is a generation that is missing out on the nourishment that they need to grow and thrive. Kids cannot be hungry for knowledge when they're hungry for food."

Osborne-Arnold added demand continues to outpace supply.

"We had families that would line up and wait in 2- and 3-hour-long lines to get one box of food," Osborne-Arnold recalled. "And I remember seeing a pregnant mom with two small children and she had no vehicle. She was explaining to our staff on the ground that, you know, this would probably be the only time she could come because she doesn't have a way here every week."

According to Feeding America, Tennessee's statewide child hunger rate is nearly 20%.

Nonprofits working with foster care children want them to know services are available to help them navigate life once they are out of the system.

The latest statistics from the Arkansas Department of Human Services show more than 3,400 children are in foster care. Some young people are never adopted or reunited with family members and age out of the system.

Jordan Otero Foster, LEAD ambassador for the nonprofit Foster Success, now 25, entered foster care when he was 17 and said three things contributed to his successful transition into adulthood.

"Relationships with supportive adults who will last far beyond our time in foster care, financial resources that meet the various needs of young people while we pursue our higher education, the workforce and as we find our footing as young adults, and the third way to accomplish this is to ensure that all young people have access of a network to peers and supportive adults," Foster outlined.

He pointed out many young adults struggle once they leave the foster care system because they do not know about available programs or support systems.

In Arkansas, more than 1,000 children in foster care have been there for more than a year. The department of Human Services tries to reunite children with family members when possible.

Hope Cooper, campaign manager for the advocacy group Journey to Success, said her organization works with lawmakers to create legislation to address adversities foster care kids face.

"Young people in foster care face additional challenges in completing school on time," Cooper explained. "They're often coping with some mental health issues. There are other unmet needs, and as young people get older, into their young adult years, many face housing instability or challenges with getting connected to work."


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Missouri has stepped up to fight childhood hunger by providing food aid over the summer for kids who rely on school meals for nutrition.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's SuN Bucks program, launched this year, provides eligible families with a one-time, $120 EBT card per child to help cover grocery costs during the summer months.

Christine Woody, food security policy manager for the nonprofit Empower Missouri, said she is happy the program is available for families. However, she noted Missouri state departments involved in distributing the benefits had delays, meaning kids needing summer food aid did not receive it until fall this year.

"I'm just grateful that Missouri did it and I think the department had a lot of lessons learned, so 2025 is going to be a whole different experience," Woody asserted. "I'm hopeful that the kids will actually get the benefits in the summer when their families actually need it."

Families have 122 days to use the one-time SuN Bucks benefit after receiving their card. Research shows almost half of the children in Missouri rely on school meals for nutrition.

The USDA recently announced an additional $1.3 billion investment to strengthen local food systems. Woody explained Missouri's SuN Bucks program is based on the federal P-EBT initiative, which aimed to support children who lost access to meals during COVID-19 school closures.

She added her organization and others led a grassroots effort to get Missouri on board.

"Praise the Lord, they agreed to fund and run the program and there's funding to run it again in 2025," Woody emphasized.

The Show-Me State could receive more than $92 million in an economic boost generated from the SuN Bucks initiative.


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Five years ago, Minnesota established a program to bolster well-being metrics for children of color and young Native American kids. Today, fund recipients are sharing their progress.

The Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grants are in their second round of funding following what advocates called a successful pilot beginning in 2019. Given Minnesota's long-standing racial disparities, community sites making use of the aid hope the kids they serve find stability as they grow.

Brook LaFloe, associate director of the Montessori American Indian Childcare Center in Roseville, said they have been able to do things like hire a social worker, which helps build trust.

"Especially with our people's history with the boarding school era, it still lingers in some of our older generations, right?" LaFloe noted. "That mistrust in school, that mistrust in giving their children up to other people."

LaFloe added her team has maintained full enrollment for key services, including a program catering to children prenatal to 3 years old. Organizations such as Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota pushed for permanent funding after the pilot phase. The state health department said current grants are funded through 2027, but it is unclear what might happen down the road with future deficits forecast.

In northwestern Minnesota, the nonprofit All Nations Rise, which serves tribal members of White Earth Nation, carries out early childhood programming through a cultural lens.

Beth Ann Dodds, program manager for the group, said they have used the grant money to offer an Indigenous parent leadership class.

"They're learning more about themselves, which you need to have -- that self-awareness -- in order to make some positive changes," Dodds observed. "Whether that's with yourself, with that's with your family, or whether that's in your community. "

She added the curriculum has reached nearly two dozen parents, helping more than 70 children.

The grants have also helped fund efforts at Grandmother's House, a language and culture immersion program through Fond du Lac Tribal College in Cloquet.

Persia Erdrich, lead teacher for the program, said she has seen firsthand how outreach connects younger Native people with their tribal identity, aiding them in the development process. She sees the positive effects through her son.

"I started as a parent in this program, and his first words were in Ojibwe, his first sentences," Erdrich recounted. "He's bilingual now."