Of the 416,670 Utahns who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, almost 165,000 are children.

And sadly, that’s progress.

Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks that provides meals for nearly 50 million Americans each year, says 14.2 percent of Utahns live with food insecurity.

Among children, it’s worse –18.2 percent of Utah children live in homes where there isn’t enough food for everyone, according to ”Feeding America 2014.”

Inadequate nutrition can harm a child’s learning ability, social development and health, Feeding America points out. And children here are experiencing hunger — in Weber County, the childhood food insecurity rate matches the state’s at 18.2 percent.

That’s worse than Box Elder County and Davis County, at 17.7 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively.

Of the 164,400 Utah children experiencing food insecurity, 12,700 — 7.7 percent — live in Weber County.

But even though nearly 1 of every 5 local children live with hunger, the number is falling. Feeding America says the total dropped from 14,120 in 2012 to 13,800 in 2013. In three years, childhood food insecurity declined 10 percent in Weber County.

The county’s overall number of food insecurity fell 7.5 percent over the same three years, Feeding America reports, dropping from 34,310 in 2012 to 31,720 in 2014.

An improving economy helped many families escape food insecurity. Utah unemployment fell from 7.4 percent in January 2012 to 3.9 percent in December 2014, and the jobless rate continued to hold at 3.7 percent in May.

Yet school is about to end and nearly 13,000 Weber County children continue to live in food insecurity; take away the two meals many of them get at school each weekday, and it could be a long, hungry summer for thousands of kids if they don’t take part in a summer lunch program.

The Utah Food Bank reports that summer is its most critical time of year. Donations fall and need increases.

In the short term, we can address food insecurity by donating to Utah’s network of 140 emergency pantries and regional food banks. That will help hungry children get through the summer.

But that’s not enough.

Over the past three years we’ve helped hundreds of Weber County children escape food insecurity. As part of their Intergenerational Poverty Initiative, county leaders need to study local hunger, learn what worked to reduce childhood food insecurity, and develop a strategy to feed more families.

This is our chance. We helped nearly 1,500 Weber County children escape food insecurity.

Now let’s do the same for the other 13,000.