Organizations partner to address care deserts

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - In a press conference Monday morning, Kroger, Bayer, AgriSafe, and Feeding America announced how they are going to address care deserts in rural communities.

"You have 34 million people and 9 million of them that are food insecure and you see that majority of food insecurity is in rural communities," said President of North American Bayer Crop Science Business, Jackie Applegate.

According to a release from Bayer, 90% of counties with the highest food insecurity rates are in rural communities.

This initiative will also help those rural communities with health care access.

"What we see when working with farmers they are very passionate about helping their neighbor, doing good in their community but one of the things we've also learned working with them is they are less likely to take care of themselves," said Applegate.

For country music lovers, Bayer will host its annual #Herestothefarmer initiative during the Luke Bryan Farm Tour. This will help Feeding America provide one million meals to people facing food insecurity.

"Feeding America has been a partner with Bayer for almost more than a decade our role as part of the Take Care Now campaign is to shed light on the issue of food insecurity in rural communities and to lift up the needs of care deserts serving rural communities and farmers," said Senior Manager of Corporate Partnerships, Charles Blazevish.