In 2021, over 13.6 million households in the United States experienced food insecurity and 1 in 8 households with children in the United States could not buy enough food for their families. Food insecurity is a problem in America, and the solutions needed to address the problem are complex. Food insecurity can be related to lack of stable employment, lack of accessible/affordable transportation to and from grocery stores, systemic racism or racial discrimination, lack of access to affordable housing and/or healthcare. 

Poverty is cyclical and complex, there are no silver bullet solutions. But we believe that if we work together, we can enact meaningful change and work to decrease food insecurity in the Louisville region.
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Reconstruct Challenge: Food Justice is seeking to find and fund innovations that are working to increase food access and decrease food insecurity in the Louisville region.

● 100,000 Louisville residents experienced food insecurity in 2021

● Among its cohort of peers, Louisville is the worst performer in terms of households that do not have a car and live relatively far from a grocery store (more than 1 mile).

● In Louisville and its peer cities, the childhood food insecurity rate is much higher than the overall food insecurity rate. 

● 1 in 5 Louisville residents live in a food desert 
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This Reconstruct Challenge was supported by funds made available by the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s Office of Health Equity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, under RFA-OT21-2103.

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