September is Hunger Action Month and Feeding Kentucky is taking action by encouraging people through education and events.
Of the four-and-a-half million people living in the Bluegrass, more than 700,000 are food insecure.
Kentucky has the 8th highest rate of food insecurity in the nation. Nearly 21% of all children are food insecure, and nearly 16% of all residents of the state.
Kristin Ingwell-Goode is the development director for Feeding Kentucky, a charitable organization that serves 120 counties in partnership with more than 800 local food pantries and shelters.
She tells me there are many contributing factors to food insecurity, from unemployment or underemployment to the cost of living.
“The percentage or just the number of folks that are served by food banks or food pantries who are homeless, is extremely low, under 10%,” says Kristin.
“So what we really see, are people who are working hard and there is just not enough for whatever reason, time in the day, they don’t have enough education to make what they need to make.”