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Forum discusses childhood obesity
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
CAMPBELL
The Youngstown- Warren-Boardman area had the third-highest food hardship rating in the United States in 2008-09.
For that same period, Ohio ranked third in the nation in food insecurity for children under age 5.
Ohio had three cities in the top 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas with the worst rates of food hardship, said Nora Nees, director of child and senior nutrition and enrollment services for the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks.
Food hardship is the lack of money to buy food that families need, according to the Food Research and Action Center.
Food insecurity arises from a lack of enough income and other resources for food.
The hunger statistics were reported Friday at a forum on childhood obesity at Campbell Memorial Elementary/Middle School.
The Ohio Association, the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and Campbell Schools sponsored the forum, which was attended by a number of community leaders and elected officials.
There are close connections between poverty, food insecurity and obesity, Nees said.
The event began with the distribution of packets of food to about 100 Campbell students in the second, third and fourth grades, something the school does every Friday during the school year in league with Second Harvest’s BackPack Program.
The BackPack Program, operated at Campbell Elementary and two Warren schools, provides 8 pounds of healthy food for each eligible student to eat over the weekend.
The BackPack Program, a national program of Feeding America, fills the gap on weekends and holidays when other food resources are not available, said Michael Iberis, executive director of Second Harvest.
Children are considered eligible for the BackPack Program if they qualify for the free and reduced-cost breakfast and lunch program or if both parents are unemployed, said Robert Walls, principal of Campbell Elementary.
Walls said about 85 percent of students in the Campbell City School District, and 90 percent in the elementary school, are eligible for free and reduced breakfast and lunch program.
The connection between poverty and obesity are twofold, Nees said.
Poor people often opt to buy the most food they can with their dollar, which can result in unhealthy choices high in carbohydrates, and buy less fruits and vegetables, which are more expensive.
There is also a connection between poverty and binge eating when food is available, Nees said.
Not only is childhood obesity high in Northeast Ohio, it is an epidemic throughout the nation, with an estimated 23 million children, age 2-19, either overweight or obese, a number that has tripled in the past 30 years, said Iberis.
The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks is pushing for the restoration of the $11.9 million that is to be cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 2014 to fund jobs in education and institute changes for health-care reform.
If the money is not restored for SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, it is estimated that families in poverty will receive $60 a month less for food, Nees said.