Editor's notes: Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger meets again Oct. 16 at 1:30 p.m. at the Oklahoma Hospital Association's office, 4000 N. Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City.

By Jaclyn Houghton

CNHI News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Each week Thalia Miller makes the rounds to the Chickasaw Nation's senior sites to donate and sell fresh vegetables to elderly members of the community.

She doesn't consider it a business venture.

"Ours is more just for the nutritional needs of our elders," said Miller, director of the Horticulture Department of the Chickasaw Nation in Ada. " ... A lot may not be able to go to stores."

The Chickasaw Nation is one of several communities operating a community garden not only for nutritional value, but to educate children on where food comes from and the importance of a balanced diet.

Creating more community gardens, like the one in Ada, to deal with hunger was a topic at the first Oklahoma Task Force on Hunger meeting, bringing together legislators, agency officials, religious organizations and public and private groups Tuesday.

Senate Bill 499, authored by Sen. Andrew Rice, D-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, created the task force. The 15-member group is charged with making recommendations to coordinate services between organizations and governments, to expand programs, to find ways to get more people into existing programs, to find funding and to make sure children have access to food. The task force is to report on its findings by Dec. 31.

Oklahoma is ranked sixth in the nation for citizens with low or very low food security, meaning households that are financially stretched and may not be able to afford food.

About 14.6 percent of Oklahomans have low or very low food security compared with about 11 percent nationwide, according to a 2005 U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

"We're well above where we need to be in the state," said Rodney Bivens, executive director and CEO of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and member of the task force.

Bivens said about 17 percent of Oklahomans fall below the federal poverty line and the number is growing. About one in five children are at risk of going hungry, he said.

"Children sometimes don't have anything to eat from lunch Friday afternoon to breakfast Monday morning," Bivens said.

David Thompson, Chickasha Emergency Food Pantry board chairman, said the organization gives bags of groceries to 1,500 to 1,800 people each year. He said the number of people needing food has stayed pretty steady over the years and most of those in need are not homeless.