Understanding Childhood Hunger

Facts on Childhood Hunger

Even with facts and figures like these below, childhood hunger in America isn't immediately visible. Through No Kid Hungry™, Share Our Strength's national campaign to end childhood hunger by 2015, we connect needy children and their families with nutritious food where they live, learn and play. Together, we are making sure no child in America grows up hungry.

Why Childhood Hunger Is Important

hunger-facts1-small.jpg Hunger impairs our children’s health in significant and long-lasting ways:

  • Children who struggle with hunger are sick more often, recover more slowly, and are more likely to be hospitalized, at an average cost of $12,000 per pediatric stay.i ii

  • They are more likely to experience headaches, stomachaches, colds, ear infections and fatigue.iii

  • Children who face hunger are more susceptible to obesity and its harmful health consequences as children and as adults.iv

Hunger impedes our children’s ability to learn and perform academically.

  • Undernourished children under the age of 3 cannot learn as much, as fast or as well .v

  • Lack of enough nutritious food impairs a child’s ability to concentrate and perform well in school.vi vii viii ix

  • Children who don’t get enough nutritious food are more susceptible to the negative effects of skipping breakfast on their ability to think and learn.x

Hunger predisposes our children to emotional and behavioral difficulties:

  • Children who regularly do not get enough nutritious food have have more behavioral, emotional and academic problems and tend to be more aggressive and anxious.xii

  • Teens who regularly do not get enough to eat are more likely to be suspended from school and have difficulty getting along with other kids.xiii

Food Securityxiv

49.1 million Americans - including nearly 17 million children - lack the means to regularly put enough nutritious food on the table . They are food insecure and struggle with hunger.

Food insecurity exists in 14.6% of all U.S. households:

  • 42.2% of all households at or below the poverty line
  • 37.2% of all single-mom households
  • Families struggling with hunger experience three or more symptoms of food insecurity during seven months of the year, on average.
  • Symptoms of food insecurity include running out of food without money to buy more, cutting portion sizes or skipping meals, and not feeding children in the family because there isn’t money for food.
  • For about one-fourth of families struggling with hunger, symptoms are frequent or chronic.

Food insecure families (17.1 million households) struggle with hunger.

  • 83.6% live in major metropolitan areas
  • 67.7% live above the poverty line
  • 52.1 % are white
  • 48.7% (8.3 million) have kids under 18

Food insecurity affects nearly 17 million children in America.

  • 34% more than last year
  • 48.7% live in married-couple families
  • 41.9% live in single-mom families
  • 41.2% live at or below the poverty line
  • 40.3% live in the South
  • 35.5% live in cities outside of major metro areas

Learn more >>

PovertyXV

  • 39.8 million Americans (13.2%) live in poverty; 14.1 million (19%)of them are children.
  • 744,000 more children live in poverty now than a year ago.
  • $21,834 annual income is the poverty threshold for a family of four, or $419.89 per week.

Learn more >>

Food Assistance Programs & Resources

Child nutrition programs make a positive difference. They can mean the difference between empty tummies and the ability to function productively and healthfully. For children, they can make the difference between healthy growth…and failure to thrive. The more families who use them, the closer we come to our goal of ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.

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

  • Nearly half (49.2%) of American children will receive SNAP benefits at some point in their lives.xvii

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly “food stamps”):

  • 35.5 million Americans used SNAP on average per month during 2009, 6.1 million more per month than in 2008.

  • The average monthly SNAP benefit in 2009 was $128.45 per person, or less than $1.50 per meal.

  • 17.7 million American children received SNAP benefits on average per month in 2009.xviii

Learn more >>

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

  • Nearly 9.2 million American women and children under the age of 5 participated in WIC on average per month in 2009.

  • 7 million participants were children and infants in 2009.

  • $41.93 was the average monthly food benefit each participant received in 2009, $1.84 less per month than in 2008.

  • Every $1 spent on WIC results in $1.77 to $3.13 in Medicaid savings for newborns and their mothers.

Learn more >>

National School Lunch & Breakfast Programs:

  • On an average school day in 2009, 19.5 million American children ate a free or reduced-price school lunch—859,000 more than the year before.

  • On an average school day in 2009, 10.8 million school children ate school breakfast; 8.8 million received their breakfast for free or at a reduced price.

  • 10.1 million children eligible for free or reduced price school breakfast still do not get one.

  • Only 1 in 7 schools that offer school lunches also offer school breakfast.

Learn more >>

Summer Food Service Programxix

  • Children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch during the school year are generally eligible for summer meal programs.

  • Just 1 in 6 kids who ate a free or reduced-price school lunch during the school year also received summer meals.

Learn more >>

Emergency Food Assistancexx

  • 4.8 million households (families) received food from food pantries during 2008 (2009 data is not yet available); 25% of these families did so every month,

  • 4.5 million children lived in families that received food from food pantries in 2008.

  • Nearly 75% of families who received food from food pantries in 2008 were food-insecure.

Resources

iCook J.T., Frank D.A., Berkowitz C., Black M.M., Casey P.H., Cutts D.B., Meyers A.F., Zaldivar N., Skalicky A., Levenson S.M., Heeren T., Nord M. Food Insecurity is Associated with Adverse Health Outcomes Among Human Infants and Toddlers. J Nutr, June 2004; 134:1432-1438.


iiCook J.T., Frank D.A. Food Security, Poverty, and Human Development in the United States. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2008 (Online Early Articles). doi:10.1196/annals. 1425.001, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1196/annals.1425.001?cookieSet=1.


iiiAlaimo, K. Olson, C. M. Frongillo, E.A. Jr., Briefel, R.R. Food insufficiency, family income, and health in US preschool and school-aged children. American Journal of Public Health, 91(5):78106. 2001 May.


ivCasey, P.H., Szeto, K.L., Robbins, J.M., Stuff, J.E., Connel, C., Gossett, J.M., Simpson, O.M. Child Health-Related Quality of Life and Household Food Security. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med., 2005;159. 51-56.


vCook J.T., Frank D.A. Food Security, Poverty, and Human Development in the United States. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2008 (Online Early Articles). doi:10.1196/annals. 1425.001, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1196/annals.1425.001?cookieSet=1.


viCook J.T., Frank D.A. Food Security, Poverty, and Human Development in the United States. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2008 (Online Early Articles). doi:10.1196/annals. 1425.001, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1196/annals.1425.001?cookieSet=1.


viiJyoti D.F., Frongillo E.A., Jones S.J. Food Insecurity Affects School Children’s Academic Performance, Weight Gain, and Social Skills. J Nutr, 2005 Dec; 135: 2831-2839.


viiiAlaimo K, Olson C.M., Frongillo E.A. Food Insufficiency and American School-Aged Children’s Cognitive, Academic, and Psychosocial Development. Pediatrics, 2001 July; 109(1): 44-53.


ixKleinman R.E., Murphy M.J., Little M., Pagano M., Wheler C.A., Regal K., Jellinek M.S. Hunger in Children in the United States: Potential Behavioral and Emotional Correlates. Pediatrics, 1998 Jan; 101(1): e3.


xBreakfast and Learning in Children, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. April 22, 1999.


xiHunger in Children in the United States: Potential Behavioral and Emotional Correlates, Pediatrics. Vol. 101 No. 1 p. e3 January 1998.


xiiHunger in Children in the United States: Potential Behavioral and Emotional Correlate, Pediatrics. Vol. 101 No. 1 p. e3 January 1998.


xiiiFood insufficiency and American school-aged children’s cognitive, academic and psycho-social development. Pediatrics. Vol. 108, p. 44-53. 2001.


xivNord, M., Margaret Andrews, and Steve Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2008. USDA ERR-83, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. November 2009.


xvIncome, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. September 2009; http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf


xviU.S. Dept. of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, The Food Assistance Landscape FY2008 Annual Report. April 2009 http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB6-6/


     xviiArchives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, 2009;163(11):994-999 http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/.


xviiiThe Food Assistance Landscape FY2008 Annual Report. Economic Research Service Economic Information Bulletin No. 6-6, April 2009 http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB6-6/.


xixFood Research and Action Center, “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report,” July 2009. http://www.frac.org/pdf/2007summer.pdf


xxNord, M., Margaret Andrews, and Steve Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2008. USDA ERR-83, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. November 2009.

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