12 Million Children in the United States Face Hunger
Related subjects: Economic Recovery, Harvest & Food Supply, Healthcare Policy, J.E. Robertson, Mortgage & Credit Crisis, Sustainable Development, U.S. Economy, U.S. news
An estimated 12 million children across the United States are currently facing hunger on a daily basis. With nearly 40 million people living below the government’s officially recognized “poverty line”, chronic undernourishment affects as many as 1 in 6 American children. In 2007 98% of US families with “very low food security” reported being afraid they would not have enough to make it to their next opportunity to acquire food, while 97%, reported that the food they bought was simply not enough to avoid going hungry, and that there was no money left to buy more.
The group Share Our Strength reports that upwards of 12.6 million children were at risk of going hungry during the year 2007. That’s over 17% of children in the US. And the USDA report on Food Security for 2007 found that:
Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2007, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (11.1 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year.
About one-third of those households with “very low food security”, which means that one or more adults living in the home was forced to reduce food intake at some point during the year. As the figures were roughly unchanged, according to the USDA, from 2005 and 2006, chronic poverty and rising food prices is a significant contributing factor to food insecurity, in a nation which is the world’s most prolific food producer.
The USDA reports that studies of “very low food security” households found that “29 percent reported that an adult did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food; 22 percent reported that this had occurred in 3 or more months”. The statistics are particularly troubling in a country facing record levels of bankruptcy and home foreclosure, with over 2 million jobs lost this year, and the risk of major corporate layoffs and millions of more home foreclosures in the coming year.
With food prices soaring throughout 2007 and 2008, due to the rising costs of fuel and transport, a booming global population, mounting food scarcity in populous countries like China —now a net grain importer, accounting for 20% of the world’s population— and the US grain crop being shifted to biofuel production —as much as 18% of Iowa’s corn crop may soon be devoted to bio-ethanol production—, the chronic inability to pay the costs of feeding a family is a more serious concern than at any time in recent memory.
Share Our Strength reports that chronic poverty and household food insecurity affect children especially, as they are incapable of crafting solutions that provide an opportunity to avoid hunger. Specifically:
- 5.1 million kids —43.6%— living at or below the poverty threshold.
- 5.9 million kids living with a married couple.
- 5.8 million kids —one-third— who live in single-woman households .
- 5.3 million Caucasian kids—1.4 million or more than any other racial group.
- 10.6 million kids living within metro areas—5 times the number living outside metro areas.
- 5.2 million in the South—more than in any other region of the country.
The problem is affecting people of all races, in all manner of socio-economically classed regions. But the south is suffering the most significant number of children under threat of going hungry. The USDA reports that food insecurity in a given household is usually recurring, but not chronic. That means that with the total number of children facing hunger remaining relatively constant over time —down from the 14 million in 1998, hovering around 11-12 million over several years, and now climbing toward 13 million—, the individuals affected tend to include a broader population than the cold numbers show, with actual food insecurity burden shifting from one group to another over time.
The US must find a way to face this dire economic burden, and to prevent the unpleasant fact of individuals and individual households “falling through the cracks”. With talk of social safety nets losing funding due to a sustained economic downturn, there must be real priority placed on establishing sound and relevant policy approaches to ensure that the maximum number of at-risk households have access to the assistance they need to sustain the health of all family members.
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