COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) - A new study says that almost thirty percent of children in Branch County face “hunger insecurity”, essentially meaning at some point they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.  The “Map the Meal Gap” study commissioned by the Food Bank of South Central Michigan and Feeding America, a network of 200U.S.food banks, shows 29.6 percent of children in Branch and St Joseph counties face food insecurity. The number is 32.8 in neighboring Hillsdale County.  The regional average is 25 percent.

The study showed that the rate of food insecurity is lower as a percentage in the overall population at 17.1 percent.