CARSON CITY - Nevada has one of the nation's highest childhood hunger rates, according to a new report from the advocacy group Feeding America.
The annual report, Map the Meal Gap, shows that Nevada is tied with Georgia at 28 percent, for having the fourth highest childhood hunger rate.
That means that more than 180,000 children in Nevada often go to bed hungry.
Leslee Rogers, public relations officer at The Salvation Army of Southern Nevada, which operates a food pantry, says hungry children don't do well in school.
According to the Map the Meal Gap report, New Mexico, Mississippi and Arizona lead the nation in childhood hunger.
The numbers mean that about one in three children in those states don't get enough to eat.
In comparison, the national childhood hunger rate of around 20 percent means that about one in five children don't get enough to eat.
Rogers says hunger seems to be increasing in all age levels.
She notes that services provided through The Salvation Army's food pantry have nearly tripled in the past couple of years.
Also cut, Rogers points out, were SNAP payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, formerly known as food stamps.
"I think it was kind of the perfect storm, just all kinds of things happened at once," she adds.
Rogers says The Salvation Army's food pantry serves about 200 families and individuals per day.[[In-content Ad]]
