Understanding Childhood Hunger

Glossary of Hunger Terms

Below are some terms and definitions used to discuss childhood hunger.

Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Subsidizes healthy meals and snacks served in participating after-school programs, child care settings, and adult daycare facilities.
Child Hunger
Uneasy or painful sensation among children, caused by involuntary lack of food within their households. Children can also be hungry nutritionally without feeling any sensation of pain or discomfort. Over the course of the year, more than 12 million children are at risk of hunger in America.

Effects of Child 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
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Reduces tax burdens for low-income working households by providing a tax credit to eligible working families. For workers with very low incomes, the credit increases with each additional dollar of earnings. Shown to effectively reduce childhood poverty.
Emergency Kitchen (Soup Kitchen)
Charitable program that provides prepared foods for persons to eat on the premises.
Food Bank
Charitable non-profit organization that solicits, receives, inventories and distributes donated food and grocery products to charitable human-service agencies, such as food pantries and emergency kitchens, to provide directly to needy clients. Find a food bank near you »
Food Insecurity
The limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, including involuntarily cutting back on meals, food portions or not knowing the source of the next meal. Also known as “at risk of hunger”. Includes categories of “low” and “very low” food security, indicating degrees to which food intake is reduced or normal eating patterns disrupted because of lack of money and other resources for food.
Food Pantry (Food Shelf)
Charitable agency that distributes unprepared foods for offsite use.
Food-Rescue Organization
Charitable organization that collects prepared and/or perishable foods from sites such as restaurants, hotels and caterers for distribution either directly to needy persons or to charitable human-service agencies to provide to needy clients through various programs.
Food Security
Access to enough food for an active, healthy life. At a minimum, food security includes the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
Food Stamp Program
See Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Hunger
The uneasy or painful sensation caused by a recurrent or involuntary lack of access to food. Many scientists consider hunger to be chronically inadequate nutritional intake due to low incomes, not just lack of food. This means that people can be hungry from a nutritional perspective without experiencing physical pain.
Hunger vs. Food Insecurity
Hunger is often a symptom of acute food insecurity, but one does not depend upon the other. Hunger is not necessarily present where there is food insecurity, nor is food insecurity a pre-requisite for hunger. However, hungry children are more likely to exist in food insecure households.
National School Breakfast Program (NSBP)
Federally funded but not federally mandated. Provides children in participating schools with nutritious low-cost, reduced-price or free breakfasts during the school year.
National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
Federally assisted program that provides nutritionally balanced low-cost, reduced-price or free lunches to schoolchildren in public and non-profit private schools.
Poverty
A family is “in poverty” when its total income is below the poverty threshold for the family’s specific size and composition (number of adults and children). The poverty threshold is determined annually by the federal government as the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living.
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
Federal program that provides supplemental nutritious foods, as well as nutrition counseling, to low-income, nutritionally at-risk pregnant women, infants and children up to age 5. Participants may also use vouchers to buy supplemental foods at authorized stores.
Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)
Provides reimbursements to schools, local government agencies and community-based organizations for meals and snacks served to children during the summer months when school is not in session. Often combined with summer activity programs.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program)
Federal program considered the first line of defense against hunger. Enables low-income families to buy eligible nutritious food with Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards in authorized retail food stores.
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Provides assistance and work opportunities to needy families with dependent children by granting federal funds to states. Recipients receive cash assistance and other services, but must meet strict eligibility and work requirements and can only receive assistance for a limited period of time.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
Provides USDA commodities to states for distribution through local food banks, pantries and emergency kitchens. (Commodities are surplus domestic agricultural products that USDA purchases for distribution to federally funded food programs.)
Universal Breakfast Program
Provides a free school breakfast to all students, regardless of family income.

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