KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – As the academic year comes to a close, worries about food insecurity are mounting. In response, food banks such as the Second Harvest of Northeast Tennessee are making preparations to support families during the summer months.

“If we examine the food insecurity rates across all our counties, we find that rural hunger and child food insecurity are at their highest recorded levels,” stated Rhonda Chafin, Executive Director of the Second Harvest Food Bank.

The recently published 15th annual Map the Meal Gap report showed that 14 million children nationwide experience food insecurity, including one in five kids in northeast Tennessee.

Chafin said recent funding cuts and increased demand put food banks in a difficult situation.

“There’s so many areas that we’re seeing those small cuts and they add up and all those areas, we use those funds to purchase food to be able to distribute to these communities, especially through our direct service programs,” Chafin said. “And so when we don’t have those resources, it makes it very difficult.”

Chafin said the next big challenge will be dealing with proposed cuts to the SNAP program.

“It’s one of the most difficult years and landscapes that we’re looking at in a long time,” Chafin said. “And it brings, you know, concern, it brings worry that we want to make sure that we have the resources to meet those needs. And we’re going to continue to work hard to do that and, make sure that we stretch those dollars and help individuals that need our support most.”

Chafin did provide some good news, detailing how their summer food service program, which anticipates serving more than 6,000 kids, won’t be affected.

“We’re really excited that we’ve been able to expand that program,” Chafin said. “We’ve been able to keep our AmeriCorps volunteers. That’s come down from federal support. So those are all great things that will help us, feed more children this summer. We know that this is a great program because it’s reimbursable. It’s just like the school lunch program. And, we’re really excited about this program because we know that we have the resources that we need.”

Second Harvest Food Bank needs the community’s help to meet its needs of donations and volunteers. More information can be found on their website, netfoodbank.org