Children’s HealthWatch Founder and Principal Investigator, Dr. Deborah Frank, was featured in a Daily Free Press article on the Boston City Council’s hearing on food insecurity. Dr. Frank provided expert testimony as part of the hearing.
Boston City Council deliberate food insecurity and its impact
Boston City Council gathered Monday at City Hall and deliberated food insecurity and its impacts on public schools, health care and local food pantries in a hearing spearheaded by the Committee for Healthy Women, Families and Communities. City Councilor and Chairwoman for the Committee on Women & Healthy Communities Ayanna Pressley led the meeting and said she recognized the importance of food insecurity among Boston residents.
“Food is among the most basic rights we have as human beings,” she said. “There is simply no excuse for letting our neighbors go hungry.
Food insecurity is a pediatric issue despite all the programs working to prevent it, said Deborah Frank, founder of Children’s Health Watch and principle investigator at Boston Medical Center.
Not only are children dealing with the detrimental effects of food insecurity in Boston, Frank said, but mothers are twice as likely to be sick and three times as likely to be depressed if they do not have proper access to food.