A Staggering Statistic
Posted November 24th, 2009 by Sarah FrancisAs a new mom, I quickly learned what a cry of hunger sounds like. I was amazed by how quickly that cry drove me to action — no mom can ignore that sound. Unfortunately, in today’s economy, more and more families don’t have the resources to answer those cries. In fact, a recent USDA study found that 1 in 4 children in the U.S. are on the brink of hunger.
Tell your Senator to support the Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act today! http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/action_957/
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study on hunger in America. The study highlighted a staggering statistic: 1 in 4 children in our nation are now on the brink of hunger. That’s the highest number since the USDA started keeping track.
When 1 in 4 children in our nation are on the brink of hunger it is an emergency.
Thankfully, legislation was recently introduced to help address this crisis. The Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act would ensure that millions more children across our country have access to healthy foods.
As more and more moms are returning to work to make ends meet, more children are in childcare. This Act will add meal or snack options for children who need them, helping to cover the costs of food for children who are in care for longer hours, and making more family child care providers eligible for higher levels of reimbursement.
The bottom line: Strengthening the Child and Adult Care Food Program would help millions of children eat healthy meals every day.
Don’t forget to tell your Senators that children across our country are depending on them:
http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/action_957/
And please take a moment to spread the word. I’m sure your friends and family will want to contact their Senators on this important issue too. Forward this email far and wide.
This year we’re thankful for the over 1 million moms across this country who are part of the MomsRising community and are creating change in their own states and Washington D.C.
Happy Thanksgiving!
PS- Thanks to the National Women’s Law Center for all their great work on this issue
PPS- Looking for a food bank to give or share this holiday season? Go to Feeding America’s to quickly search for a food bank near you.
2 Comments
How do you arrive at the “1 in 4″ figure? As far as I can tell, it is drawn from Table 1 B on page 7 of the report–the 2008 figure listed refers to 22.5% of households “with low or very low food security among adults or children” (note the all important “or”!). The corresponding figure for households “with very low security among *children*” (my emphasis) is 1.5%. The report further states, “Children in most food-insecure households—even in most households with very low food security—were protected from reductions in food intake. However in about 506,000 households (1.3 percent of households with children), one or more children were also subject to reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at some time during the year (table 1B).” (p.5) So, it’s a bit more complicated than the 1 in 4 figure indicates–and “on the brink of hunger” isn’t exactly a well-defined term, at least not in the terms the report defines.
I’m as liberal as the next person (probably more so), but this sort of hyperbole not only gives liberals a bad name, but is also counterproductive, because it can be easily dismissed for what it is: irresponsible exaggeration.
Isn’t the overall case the report makes, namely that food insecurity at large does seem to be on the rise dramatic enough?
Stefan
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Sarah Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
@Stefan Gunther, Here’s where we got the 1 in 4 number: CBS News, Nov. 16, 2009
1 in 7 Americans Went Hungry in 2008
Highest Number since USDA Began Tracking Food Security Levels in 1995: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/16/national/main5673056.shtml
I’ve pulled out the portion below below:
“The report also showed an increasing number of children in the United States are suffering food insecurity. In 2008, 16.7 million children were classified as food insecure, 4.3 million more than in 2007.
Hunger advocates said they were not surprised by the numbers, and said the numbers for children, in particular, were lamentable.
“What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger,” said David Beckmann, the President of Bread of the World, a hunger advocacy organization. “
[Reply]
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