Understanding Childhood Hunger

Facts on Childhood Hunger

While childhood hunger may seem like an overwhelming problem, we can fix this.

Hunger

Hunger impairs our children’s health in significant and long-lasting ways:

• Impedes growth and development
• More illness, including stomach- and head aches, colds, ear infections and fatigue
• Poorer mental health
• More hospitalizations
• Greater susceptibility to obesity and its harmful health consequences

Hunger predisposes our children to behavioral difficulties, including:

• More aggressive behavior
• Higher levels of hyperactivity, anxiety and/or passivity
• Difficulty getting along with other children
• Greater need for mental health services

Hunger impedes our children’s ability to learn and perform academically. Hungry children are likely to:

• Have impaired cognitive functioning and diminished capacity to learn
• Achieve lower test scores and overall school performance
• Repeat a grade
• Experience school absences, tardiness and school suspensions

Food Security

35 million Americans – including 12.4 million children – are food-insecure.

Food insecurity exits in 10% or more of American households:

• 1 in 10 American homes, with or without children
• 1 in 6 households with children
• 1 in 5 with children under the age of 6
• 1 in 5 single-father homes
• 1 in 3 single-mother homes

There are just as many children living in food-insecure households headed by married couples as there are living in food-insecure homes headed by single females-5.8 million. However, that figure represents a larger portion of single-female households-more than 30%.

Households with children have a food insecurity rate almost double that of households without children, increasing their risk of hunger tremendously.

Non-Hispanic white households account for the largest number of food-insecure households, both in total (6.7 million) and among those with children (2.9 million households).

More than half-a-million (606,000) American children live in households with “very low food security” among children, putting them at the greatest risk of continual hunger.

Above-average rates of food insecurity (and risk of hunger) occur among:

• Single-mom households
• Households with children under 18 years of age
• African-American or Hispanic households
• Households in major cities
• Rural households
• Households in America’s South

Poverty

13.4 million children in America live in poverty today, representing roughly 1 in 6 children.

More than 13% of Americans – 38 million – live below the poverty threshold of $19,800 for a family of four.

Poverty in America is commonly caused by:

• High cost of living
• Low wages or income
• High health & medical costs
• Barriers to education of all kinds
• Inadequate or underdeveloped life skills
• Little-to-no support network
• Widening gap between rich and poor

Children in American households below the poverty threshold or headed by a single woman are at the greatest risk of hunger; not only do these households have the highest rate of food insecurity overall, they also have the highest rate of the most severe form (“very low”) of food insecurity.

Food Assistance Programs & Resources

Child nutrition programs make a positive difference.

• Improve nutritional quality of diet
• Improve overall behavior and school performance
• Promote nutrition education
• Reduce incidence of low birth weight and fetal mortality
• Reduce anemia

Federal Programs

The U.S. government is spending $51 billion on food assistance, including Food Stamp, School Lunch and Breakfast, WIC, and Child and Adult Care Food programs.

1 in 5 Americans use at least one of USDA’s food and nutrition assistance programs during the year.

It costs $4.21 to feed a child three nutritious meals a day through Federal food assistance programs.

Food Stamp Program:

The average monthly food stamp benefit is $93 per person-barely $1 per meal.

25.7 million Americans use food stamps in an average month. Half of these recipients are children.

No studies have shown a link between Federal food assistance programs and childhood obesity. However, the links between food insecurity and obesity are becoming clearer and may include:

• Purchasing inexpensive foods that are rich in energy (calories) yet poor in high-quality nutrition
• Purchasing a limited variety of foods, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat proteins
• Inadequate nutrition education and financial management skills

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC):

The WIC program provides 8 million American women and children an average monthly benefit of $38 per person.

Children and infants account for 3/4 of WIC participants.

Every $1 spent on WIC results in $1.77 to $3.13 in Medicaid savings for newborns and their mothers. Additional benefits include:

• More women receiving prenatal care
• Fewer low birth weight newborns
• Less infant mortality
• Healthier diets for participants

National School Lunch Program:

29 million American children eat a federally-funded school lunch each school day; 60% of these lunches – 17.4 million — are free or reduced-price.

552,000 more low-income students participate in the school lunch program this year than last.

Children in 11.5 million food-insecure households participate in the free or reduced-price school lunch program.

National School Breakfast Program

Benefits of school breakfast go beyond making sure students don’t start the day hungry. They include:

• Promoting healthier eating to fight obesity
• Improving students’ achievement, behavior and test scores
• Reducing absenteeism, tardiness and visits to the school nurse

44% of school children receiving a free or reduced-price lunch are now also getting a free or reduced-price school breakfast, up from just 29% in 1989.

School breakfast is provided to more than 9 million children on a typical school day.

More than 7 of every 10 children receiving a school breakfast do so free of charge.

27 states – more than half – have passed a school breakfast mandate, typically requiring schools with more than 20% low-income lunch students to offer school breakfast programs.

1.9 million more children would start their school day with breakfast if every state had at least 55% of eligible children participating in a school breakfast program. Currently only three states have achieved that level of participation.

Summer Food Service Program

40,000 fewer children receive meals or snacks through federal summer food and nutrition programs than a year ago.

3.2 million more low-income children would receive meals during a single summer month if 40% of eligible children in every state participated in the program.

Child and Adult Care Program

3 million children benefit from meals and snacks served at child care facilities participating in USDA’s Child & Adult Care Food Program.

Facilities that care for children serve 97% of the 1.8 billion meals provided through the Child & Adult Care Food Program annually.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) substantially increases the proportion of single mothers who work. Numerous research studies indicate that the EITC may be the “single most important policy” for increasing employment and income, and reducing cash welfare assistance among female-headed households.

EITC has moved 4.4 million Americans out of poverty, including 2.4 million children, in a single year. Households use the money to pay for basics including housing, utilities and food.

Food Banks

Food banks and food-rescue organizations provide emergency hunger-relief to 9% of all Americans-about 25 million persons.

More than one-third of individuals served by food banks are children under 18. Households with children (particularly those headed by a single female or with children under the age of 6) are nearly twice as likely to use food pantries as those without children.

36% of households using food banks include at least one employed adult.

Food pantries provide food to more than 4 million American children.

More than 1 of every 5 households that uses a food pantry does so “almost every month.”

Resources

USDA Economic Research Service, “Household Food Security in the United States, 2005, www.ers.usda.gov/Publications

Center on Hunger and Poverty, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, The Consequences of Hunger and Food Insecurity for Children, June 2002, www.centeronhunger.org

America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network, The Almanac of Hunger in America 2006, www.secondharvest.org

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August 2005, www.cbpp.org

USDA Economic Research Service, The Food Assistance Landscape, March 2006, www.ers.usda.gov/Publications

Food Research and Action Center, State of the State 2006 report, www.frac.org

Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, Food Stamps as Medicine, A New Perspective on Children’s Health, February 2007, www.c-snap.org