In my role as an FCS Extension Specialist, I have been overseeing the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center (RCPNC). National trends show that both the overall rural poverty rate and the rural child poverty rate have been higher than their urban poverty rate counterparts over the past thirty plus years.  Research has found worse outcomes in terms of nutrition, activity, and obesity for children living in rural areas compared to children living in non-rural areas. The role of the center is to develop and administer a series of sub-grants awarded to government and/or non-profit organizations with projects aimed at reducing child hunger by increasing participation in child nutrition assistance programs in rural, impoverished areas across the U.S.  

The RCPNC developed a comprehensive evaluation to evaluate programmatic achievements. The evaluation is based upon past research identifying important barriers to participation in various programs. Four important barriers are identified in the literature: 1) lack of information and awareness of the program, 2) physical access to food resources, 3) insufficient community resources to field the programs, and 4) social stigma. Surveys were collected to gauge baseline knowledge and attitudes of nutrition programs at the beginning of the projects. This year, a second wave of surveys were collected and analysis of data from the pre/post (Time I and Time 2) surveys were conducted. More people reported greater awareness of National School Lunch Program and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as increased participation. Fewer respondents had problems feeding children a balanced meal in Time 2 compared to Time I. Findings showed that a significantly greater number of individuals reported at Time 2 that they had participated in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as compared to Time 1. These preliminary results show significant differences between pre and post responses that were promising and provides some support that projects implemented in these rural, persistently poor areas are making a positive impact toward reducing child hunger.