A report commissioned by Feeding America and The ConAgra Foods Foundation, and written by Children’s HealthWatch, details the impacts that food insecurity in children has on the nation’s economic future. The report explores data from Children’s HealthWatch and other literature that demonstrates how food insecurity and hunger with other correlates of poverty can significantly alter the architecture of children’s brains, thus affecting their ability to reach their full potential as adults.
Child Food Security: The Economic Impact on our Nation
More than 12 million children under the age of eighteen in the United States are food insecure—unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. More than three million children under the age of five are food insecure.
What does this mean for the United States? The costs of child food insecurity are great. Food insecurity not only affects a child and his or her family, but is a problem that impacts society economically through a variety of channels. By affecting a child’s health, education, and workforce and job readiness, the impacts of child hunger are more far reaching than one might anticipate.
Click here to read the executive summary.
