On May 2nd, 2017 Witnesses to Hunger member, Juell Frazier, testified before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Health Care Financing in support of Senate bill 612, “An Act improving public health through a common application for core food, health and safety-net programs”.
School breakfast plays a critical role in improving health, closing the achievement gap, and reducing hunger. Research from Children’s HealthWatch and the Eos Foundation ranks 33 high poverty districts in Massachusetts on their school breakfast participation rates. Of the nearly 300,000 children in high poverty districts who were eligible for free and reduced price breakfast […]
For eight months, Jamal Brown’s body shook, so violently that he lost consciousness and ended up in the hospital more than 30 times. Though only in his 30s, his face drooped, his arms and legs often felt numb, and he was overcome with the anxiety of being a homeless drug addict trying to get clean […]
A few years ago, Dr. Megan Sandel treated a child at Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic, where Sandel is associate director. The child was 2 years old but the size of a 1-year-old. “We tried everything — PediaSure, medications, scopes,” Sandel said. “Nothing worked.” The case was worrisome because, as Sandel noted, “if you’re not […]
Recently, Alex, a 10 year-old boy in my pediatric practice, was in the office complaining of a stomachache. I asked the usual questions: When did it start? Did it happen at certain times or in response to particular foods? Were there any other gastrointestinal changes? What made it better or worse? Many questions later, I […]
Growing up in a hungry household in the first couple of years of life can hurt how well a child performs in school years later, according to a new study. An estimated 13.1 million children live in homes with insufficient food, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many of […]
While it may seem obvious that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is good for people’s health, it’s only recently that food banks and other hunger relief groups, as well as a growing number of startups, are explicitly thinking of themselves as part of the health care system. At the same time, health care […]
THANK YOU for highlighting the free tax preparation services for low-wage taxpayers provided at the Boston Medical Center (“Physical and fiscal fitness,” Metro, March 13). Cristela Guerra’s report insightfully notes the connection between health and financial stability. As she notes, not everyone is aware of the earned income tax credit, the largest federal anti-poverty program […]
BUDGETS are documents that show the priorities of administrations. Last week, Donald’s Trump’s White House rolled out its first budget that shows it puts walls, weapons and war ahead of America’s poor. This budget plunders money for food from seniors, heat from families and educational programming from America’s kids. It bars America’s most vulnerable from […]
As a physician, Dr. Ben Carson knew the right prescriptions to give to his neurosurgery patients. But as the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will he be able to provide the right prescription for HUD? The wrong one is cutting HUD’s budget by a staggering $6 billion (down 13.2 […]