Growing number of homeless people are obese

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Homeless people might be hungry, but a growing number are also obese.

In fact, a new study published in the Journal of Urban Health shows that one in three homeless people are obese.

At the Worthington Street Shelter in Springfield, they recently developed a nutrition program to help homeless people learn more about healthy eating.

Kathy Tobin, Director of Program Development for Friends of the Homeless , told 22News that people who are homeless need to have access to information that can help them make healthy choices.

“One of the things we realized is that people who are homeless or newly housed don't always have good nutritional information to work with,” Tobin said. “They have very limited budgets, they don't know how to stretch those budgets to eat well, and the result of poverty is poor nutrition, and poor nutrition is poor health.”

The study points out that nutrition is a daily challenge for homeless people. Because many of them don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, they are eating more processed foods.