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Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland recently put out the data from the latest Map the Meal Gap study, and FAKH Marketing and Communications Manager Manda Barger says the numbers show the need for support.

“Throughout our 42-county service area, 17 percent of our neighbors are facing food insecurity,” Barger said. “That means that there’s one in six of our neighbors, they could be your friends or your family, that are struggling to make ends meet to get food on the table or are facing certain challenges that get in the way of them getting the necessary food that they need.”

Barger says 21.1 percent of children in the region struggle with food insecurity, with numbers for the region and Hardin County both trending higher than national averages.

Barger says food insecurity is a problem you may not immediately recognize.

“We had a lot of this conversation when we were talking with our SNAP advocacy during the summer in that you don’t know what kind of challenges or hardships that someone can face, and I think all of us can understand that we might be a family emergency or a natural disaster away from needing support,” Barger said.

Feeding America encourages Kentuckians to support their neighbors in need during Hunger Action Month in September, with opportunities to donate or volunteer.

“A lot of people can also just advocate, get this information out there,” Barger said. “We don’t want this to be a hidden issue in our community. We want to make sure that people who need help are getting it, but also that we are aware of the problems that members of our community are facing.”

Visit www.feedingamericaky.org for more information.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their second meeting of the month Tuesday.

The fiscal court approved property tax rates for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

“The real estate tax rate of 10.8 cents per each $100 of assessed value, the personal property, business inventory, non-Kentucky-registered watercraft and aircraft rate of 12.3 cents per $100 of assessed value, and then the motor vehicle and watercraft tax rate of 11.5 cents on each $100,” said County Attorney Jenny Oldham during a public hearing on the tax rate held during the meeting.

Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul said during his presentation on the tax rate that the county was going with the four percent revenue increase.

“The four percent increase from the previous year brought us very close to what we looked at and what we were able to predict,” Taul said. “It came in within a total of about $60,000, so very close to what the budget that we are currently in shows.”

Taul said the county budget is being balanced with about $2.5 million from the BlueOval SK Pilot Agreement, while not using annual funds from the Baptist Health Hardin hospital sale. The business personal property rate increased while the real estate property rate decreased.

“The reason that we could do this, to actually have an increase in revenue with a tax rate that went down 0.3 cents, is because it’s due to our growing county, really, and with an almost $1 billion increase in real estate property valuations,” Taul said.

In other meeting news, Hardin County Coroner Pat Elmore said his office responded to 72 cases in June and 129 in July, noting an increased number of autopsies performed. Hardin County Sheriff John Ward said in June and July his office made 189 arrests and issued 254 citations.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet September 9.