- (617) 414-6366
- info@childrenshealthwatch.org
- 801 Albany Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02119
The White House has asked elected officials, advocates and activists, and leaders of business, faith, and philanthropy from across America to contribute to meet a bold goal: to end hunger in America and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet- related diseases.
More than 50 years since the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health, the U.S. has yet to end hunger and is facing an urgent, nutrition-related health crisis—the rising prevalence of diet-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and certain cancers. The consequences of food insecurity and diet-related diseases are significant, far reaching, and disproportionately impact historically underserved communities. Yet, food insecurity and diet-related diseases are largely preventable, if we prioritize the health of the nation.
The Biden-Harris Administration envisions an America where no one wonders whether they will have enough money to put food on the table, where the healthy food choice is the easier choice, and where everyone has the same opportunity to be physically active. Transformative programs, policies, and system changes are needed within and outside government to achieve this vision. There is no silver bullet to address these complex issues, and there is no overnight fix. Making progress requires collective, sustained action and mobilization across every segment of society. That is why President Biden announced a goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases— while reducing related health disparities.
To advance the President’s goal—and build on the federal government’s existing work to address hunger and diet-related diseases—this strategy identifies ambitious and achievable actions the Biden-Harris Administration will pursue across five pillars. Children’s HealthWatch was asked to contribute in three areas.
By 2030, Children’s HealthWatch will fund three new studies focused on alleviating food insecurity for low-income families. They also commit to raising $1.9 million by 2030 to deepen research and understanding of interventions for lifting families with young kids out of poverty.
Children’s HealthWatch is committed to advancing health equity among young children and families by informing policies that eliminate economic hardship. Building upon our nearly 25 years of research and policy expertise, we commit to identifying innovative, policy-relevant approaches that can be scaled to eliminate food insecurity. To accomplish this, we will lead and collaborate on multisite, evidence-based demonstration pilots that test interventions to address root causes of food insecurity and health inequities, and result in policy changes that help young children and their families thrive, especially for families of color and immigrant families. This work will leverage our multidisciplinary perspectives of health and hardship and center as equal partners the knowledge, expertise, and experience of families with young children who have been marginalized. Specifically, Children’s HealthWatch has secured and/or is actively seeking dedicated funding for three intervention studies that will reduce food insecurity among families with children:
The goal of this intervention is to embed a wellness advocate within HR department at Boston Medical Center to assist employees with children at risk of food insecurity access employer-based and public benefits for which they are eligible and support career and economic advancement. A primary goal of this intervention is to address food insecurity among new employees with children from disinvested neighborhoods in Boston. We are actively fundraising for this $450,000 project and have $100,000 currently committed. This will be a one-year pilot and we anticipate raising the remainder of funding by next year.
In partnership with Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s HealthWatch seeks to provide policy expertise and support to a multi-phase randomized trial for children undergoing cancer treatment in families with low incomes. Recognizing well-documented disparities in cancer outcomes based on family income and the critical importance of affording basic needs, including food, this pilot seeks to test the provision of unconditional cash transfers for families with children undergoing cancer treatment on health outcomes, remission rates, and family economic stability. Multiphase, 8-year trial, including policy-relevant research and dissemination is an estimated $1 million.
This 12-month developmental study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a food justice initiative. This initiative will cultivate patient/family leadership through 1) shared problem identification, 2) systems and policy analysis, 3) solutions-design, and 4) implementation oversight, resulting in feedback loops that inform changes to policies within systems that, for example, fundamentally improve food security and advance food justice. We have applied for $100,000 in funding to support the initial 12-month development phase of work.
Convened by Children’s HealthWatch and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), the Hunger Vital Sign National Community of Practice (HVS NCoP) works to facilitate conversations and collective action among a wide range of stakeholders interested in addressing food insecurity through a health care lens. The group seeks to identify research on the connections between food insecurity and health, promote the use of validated screening tools such as the Hunger Vital Sign to screen for food insecurity, and champion effective interventions to address food insecurity both at the practice and policy levels. We commit to expanding our efforts in partnership with other stakeholders to rapidly share leading best practices and data on food insecurity screening/intervention activities and strategies to scale what works to drive change within health care delivery systems. We will do this by leveraging a diverse community inclusive of physicians, public health researchers, anti-hunger agencies and advocates, health care professionals, policy experts, and most importantly – the experience and expertise of families who have experienced food insecurity, institutional racism, and health inequities themselves.
Examples of the HVS NCoP’s work, which complement the goals of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health include but are not limited to: greater alignment between health care, public health, and social service sectors in identifying individuals at risk of food insecurity and effectively connecting those individuals to the federal nutrition programs for which they are eligible; identifying and helping to resolve barriers and facilitators to accepting and participating in health care-based interventions designed to resolve patients’ food security-related social needs; and disseminating and offering technical assistance on the purpose and effective implementation of food insecurity screening and measurement tools in clinical and community settings. Children’s HealthWatch has committed $25,000 in in-kind (staff time) contribution to this work on an annual basis – the true cost of this work annually is approximately $100,000 (including staff time, travel, publications, meeting costs, and a HVS NCoP communications platform). Over the next 8 years, our intended reach and outcomes include:
For nearly a quarter century, Children’s HealthWatch has conducted equity-focused research rooted in the experiences of families with young children to examine policies and systemic approaches that can eliminate food insecurity and improve health. Our comprehensive, mutually reinforcing research agenda across domains illuminates systemic and policy solutions for responding to food insecurity and its systemic root causes. Building on our previous research, we commit to monitoring the impact of nutrition assistance (especially SNAP, WIC, CACFP) and other social policies on child and family health as well as advocate for evidence-based solutions. Children’s HealthWatch seeks to raise $1.8 million annually to deepen research and understandings of systemic solutions for ending poverty among families with young children by 2030. Specifically, within the next year Children’s HealthWatch has funding or is actively seeking funding to investigate the following domains:
Using data from the Housing Prescriptions as Health Care randomized trial conducted by Children’s HealthWatch between 2016-2020, we plan to examine how a multifaceted intervention designed to promote housing stability changed family food security and health statuses over a two-year period. We currently have $25,000 committed for this project from October 2022-October 2023 and are seeking additional funding.
Building upon recently published research on the associations between advanced CTC payments and family economic stability and health outcomes as well as ongoing work to promote the EITC as a health and financial stability intervention, we commit to leveraging our expertise to drive evidence-based, federal and state refundable tax credit policies as a strategy for reducing food insecurity. We currently have $180,000 committed to this work through December 2022 and are seeking another $300,000 in funding for further analyses and dissemination.
Using longitudinal data collected pre and during the COVID pandemic, we are actively seeking to publish research on disparities in increases in food insecurity among families with young children and the impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) expansions on food insecurity for families. We also seek to explore how various changes in SNAP policy over time impact food security outcomes. Our work was funded with $50,000 from 2020-2021 to conduct analyses and we are seeking further funding for more robust analyses over longer time periods.
As part of our commitment to advancing racial equity and immigrant inclusion, we also seek to build upon our research demonstrating chilling effects among immigrant families accessing public benefits and disparities in food insecurity among these families. We seek to amplify these findings to promote immigrant-inclusive policies that reduce food insecurity for children in immigrant and mixed status families. We were funded $100,000 through June 2022 and are seeking additional $100,000 to more deeply explore our unique multistate data.
Children’s HealthWatch has been the national leader in developing and disseminating a two-item screening tool to assess households at risk for food insecurity – the Hunger Vital Sign™ (HVS). Building on this deep knowledge and experience, we identified the need for a shorter, more flexible and adaptable measure to classify levels of food insecurity severity at the household and the child level since current short measures do not identify levels of severity. This new measure was dubbed the Abbreviated Child and Adult Food Security Scale (ACAFSS). The ACAFSS is short (8 questions) and easy to use (interview or self-response), balancing financial and/or time constraints as well as respondent burden in clinical, research, school, and other settings. The ACAFSS also functions as a confirmatory identification of household food insecurity after the initial HVS screen, can be used to plan and implement specific interventions for different levels of food insecurity severity, and measure its success by decrease in levels of severity. We secured $100,000 through Fall 2022 to complete the validation work and seek further funding to test the ACAFSS in other populations and to widely disseminate the survey.
Based on recent research conducted by Children’s HealthWatch demonstrating connections between child care constraints (when families are unable to work or study due to problems securing child care) and food insecurity, we seek to expand our research and advocacy portfolio in identifying bold solutions for increasing access to universal, high-quality, affordable child care beginning in infancy. We are actively seeking funding $100,000 for this work.
