The New York State Department of Health (DOH) has found in a Jan. 2024 report that Oswego County ranks no.5 in food insecurity, trailing behind the Bronx, Queens, Kings and Herkimer counties.
The report states that 26.2% of adults in Oswego County face food insecurity, which “is estimated by the percentage of adults who report that they were always, usually, or sometimes worried or stressed about having enough money to buy nutritious meals in the past 12 months,” the New York DOH said.
Beyond the consistent worry of when the next meal may be, food insecurity has a plethora of effects on individuals and only compounds when taking families into account.
“Adults experiencing food insecurity have a higher probability of several chronic diseases, including hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, asthma, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and kidney disease,” the report stated.
In response to the increase in food insecurity, the Oswego County Student Food Insecurity Task Force united on Jan. 22 at the Center for Instruction, Technology and Innovation (CiTi) to discuss approaches and potential solutions for the recent development. This task force is a combination of Oswego County’s Backpack Program, which is held by the county’s school districts and supplies food to students and families over the weekend based on need.
Administrator of Workforce Development and Community Relations at CiTi Brian Heffron clarified in a January interview the stages of the task force and its developments to come.
“We’re gearing up to change how we tackle food insecurity for students in the county, making it more inclusive and better for everyone,” Heffron said.
Though there is no cut-and-dry answer to reducing food insecurity, state and federal safety nets are frequently seen as socioeconomic mitigation tools. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the lead office at the National Institutes of Health, theorizes that “giving more people benefits through nutrition assistance programs, increasing benefit amounts, and addressing unemployment may help reduce insecurity and hunger.”
According to Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), Oswego County had 17,407 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in 2021, the first instance of an increase in food insecurity; 2020 saw a relative minimum of 16,390 SNAP recipients per FRED.
Associated factors of food insecurity, including poverty and household income, are above average in Oswego County, perpetuating the issue of food insecurity across the board. The national poverty rate in 2022, according to the United States Census Bureau, was 11.5%, whereas Oswego County stood at a persons-in-poverty rate of 17.4%. In the same year, the median household income across the United States was $74,580, and the median in Oswego County was $65,054.
Food insecurity is minimized when other socioeconomic factors are addressed. For Oswego County to overcome its current-day issue, it must focus on the overall scheme of insecurities, including housing, employment and financial ones.
