Children, Hunger, and Poverty

This column started out to highlight hunger in American children. But one quickly finds that you cannot discuss hunger without its partner, poverty, since hunger is principally caused by poverty. We also discovered in 2006 the twenty-first century lexicon term of food insecurity. While hunger in the sense of “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food”(Oxford English Dictionary 1971) is becoming more apparent to many, we are challenged by what many advocates call “an awful and embarrassing situation.” In the richest country in the world by gross domestic product, children live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. Even short-term episodes of hunger can cause lasting child development damage. In 2011, staggering statistics include the following: 1. Fifty million Americans lived in food-insecure homes, 16.7 million are children. 2. Food insecurity exists in every county in America, ranging from a low of 2.4% in Slope County, North Dakota, to a high of 35.2% in Holmes County, Mississippi. 3. The top five states with the highest rate of food-insecure children under 18 are New Mexico (30.6%), the District of Columbia (30.0%), Arizona, Oregon, and Georgia. In addition, 20% or more of the child population in 37 states live in food-insecure households without consistent access to food. 4. Seven states have statistically significant higher household food insecurity rates than the U.S. national average of 14.7%. These include Mississippi, Alaska, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, and California, ranging from 19% to 16% plus (Coleman-Jensen, Nord, Andrews, & Carlson, 2012; Hunger & Poverty Statistics, 2013). 5. Nearly 14 million children are estimated to be served by Feeding America, over 3 million of which are ages 5 and under (feedingamerica.org, August 23, 2013). We talk about global hunger and we see little children with extended tummies and sad eyes. But in Somerville, New Jersey, “[t]hat’s not what you’ll see – you’ll see sadness in the children’s eyes. That’s really the worst part for us,” said Marie Scannell, executive director of the Food Bank of Somerset County in New Jersey (Avila, 2011).