Map the Meal Gap report reveals disparity in food insecurity in North Idaho
Map the Meal Gap results for Idaho's food insecurity.
Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, has released its annual "Map the Meal Gap" report that estimates 12.7% of Idahoans are food insecure.
Food insecurity is when people don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from.
About 16% of Idaho children face food insecurity, according to the report, an increase from last year’s report, which estimated 11.4% of Idahoans and 14.5% of Idaho children were food insecure.
“The latest Map the Meal Gap report reaffirms what we have been seeing across Idaho, that more of our neighbors are reaching out for support,” said Randy Ford, president and CEO of The Idaho Foodbank.
The study builds upon the USDA’s latest report of national and state data, which showed 47 million people experienced food insecurity in 2023, the highest level in nearly a decade. That number included 14 million children.
Around 50,000 people in North Idaho and North Central Idaho are estimated to be food insecure.
Nationally, 85% of counties with the highest food insecurity are rural. The highest rates of food insecurity in Idaho are in Lewis County (17.6%), Butte County (16.9%) and Shoshone County (16.6%).
The Idaho counties with the highest rates of food insecurity among children are Lewis County (25%), Shoshone County (24.8%), Boundary County (24%) and Clearwater County (23.4%).