Children in the food deserts of the Black Belt in Alabama are 'still being forgotten,' researcher says

Children in the food deserts of Black Belt in Alabama are "still being forgotten," Brandan Renfroe, who researched food insecurity at University of West Alabama, tells AL.com. Renfroe surveyed 742 students in 16 Black Belt high schools and "found that a quarter of the students self-reported as experiencing food insecurity, with about 9% facing very low food security, meaning food has run out and they’ve gone a day or more without eating, far exceeding the national average," Savannah Tryens-Fernandes reports.

The story begins with this example: "Angela Pettway drives 90 miles round trip to the grocery store almost every day. Food runs out quickly in her rural Alabama household. She homeschools two of her children and feeds them all three meals. She also helps care for her dad. More and more recently, neighbors have been coming over to ask if she has any food to spare."

The Black Belt was named "for the dark, fertile soil that made this region of Alabama a hub of cotton production and therefore slavery, with one of the highest concentrations of enslaved Black folks in the South," Tryens-Fernandes notes. "Today, the name refers to the majority Black population that live there, people who can mostly still trace their ancestors back to the plantations. But over the past century, local food production has decreased, with many farmers aging out of the profession, being priced out, or affected by severe soil erosion."

Tryens-Fernandes, a Report for America reporting fellow, examines various food programs in the region. It's a good example of how to report on a problem that's big but may not be obvious.