Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

B.J. Kimbrough, Ed.D.

Second Advisor

Rachel Dunbar, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Kelly Pivik, Ph.D.

Abstract

Food insecurity is a multifaceted problem. Though it involves lack of access to sufficient nutrition for an active, healthy life, it frequently portends more. Food insecurity negatively impacts academic performance, mental and physical health, and social/emotional well-being. It is particularly detrimental for rural adolescent students, who experience food insecurity at higher rates than their urban and suburban peers. Especially is this true for minority students, whose food insecurity rates are more than twice the national average. In the Black Belt region of Alabama, levels of food insecurity among high school adolescents, as perceived by those adolescents ( as opposed to parental report) have yet to be quantified. Nor has the impact of food service programs in these school districts been probed to any significant degree in the literature, particularly in view of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has exacted on food security. Public high school students in grades 9-12 in the Black Belt of Alabama completed the Children's Food Security Scale to determine the extent of food insecurity in the region. Input also was solicited from Child Nutrition Programs directors in the same districts. The findings indicate that food insecurity is pervasive in the Black Belt, with Very Low Food Security measured at over ten times the national average. Food insecurity is not particularly attributable to differences in race, grade level, or gender, but saturates all demographics. Findings from the study have implications not only for local feeding efforts but also for public policymakers.

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