Pediatricians are asked to join fight against childhood hunger, By Catherine Saint Louis, October 23, 2015, New York Times: “The American Academy of Pediatrics on Friday urged pediatricians to screen all patients for food insecurity and to refer parents to appropriate agencies so children do not go hungry. Sixteen million children live in homes where there is consistently not enough food, according to the Agriculture Department. Those children get sick more often, have poorer overall health and are hospitalized more frequently than peers who are adequately nourished. So-called food insecurity has also been linked to behavioral and emotional problems from preschool through adolescence…”
Tag: Child hunger
School Food Programs
Schools becoming the ‘last frontier’ for hungry kids, By Marisol Bello, April 5, 2015, USA Today: “America’s schools are no longer just a place for students to learn their ABCs. They are also increasingly where children eat their three squares. The classroom has become a dining room as more children attending public schools live in poverty. More than half of students in public schools — 51% — were in low-income families in 2013, according to a study by the Southern Education Foundation. The number of low-income children in public schools has been persistent and steadily rising over the past several decades. In 1989, 32% of children in public schools lived in poverty, the foundation says…”
Children Receiving SNAP Benefits
- Almost twice as many kids helped by food stamps than before recession, By Olivia Winslow, January 28, 2015, Newsday: “The number of children receiving benefits from food stamps in 2014 is nearly twice as high as the number receiving such assistance before the start of the recession in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday. The bureau found that 22 percent of all children under 18 — about 1 in 5 — received food stamps in 2014, or an estimated 16 million, compared with ‘roughly’ 9 million children — about 1 in 8 — in 2007, before the start of the 18-month recession that officially ended in June 2009…”
- 1 in 5 American kids rely on food stamps, By Aimee Picchi, January 28, 2015, CBS News: “America is a global leader on a number of fronts, including having the largest economy in the world. But here is one area where the U.S., given its general affluence, would rather not distinguish itself: It has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the industrialized world. Even as the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, 1 in 5 children are on food stamps, the U.S. Census said on Wednesday. Before the housing crash, 1 in 8 received federal food assistance…”
- Census: 1 in 5 children on food stamps, Associated Press, January 28, 2015, Washington Post: “Sixteen million children were on food stamps as of last year, the highest number since the nation’s economy tumbled in 2008. Numbers released by the Census Bureau Wednesday as part of its annual look at children and families show that one in five children were on food stamp assistance in 2014. The survey was taken last spring…”