Council will tackle hunger problem in Wayne County

Hunger in Wayne County has many faces.

It’s the family whose food stamp benefits are exhausted and has no money to buy food.

It’s the single man with no way to get to a grocery, so he eats whatever he can buy at a nearby convenience store.

It’s also the elderly couple who can’t afford to follow the diets recommended for their health conditions.

Addressing these and other food insecurity problems in Wayne County is the task of a new food council, “Voices for Food.”

Purdue University and five other land grant universities were awarded a $4 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to look at hunger.

Wayne County was among a handful of Indiana counties chosen to be part of the research on hunger, Wayne County Extension educator Alicia Criswell said. Selection was based on poverty levels and food insecurity.