Child Food Insecurity is on the rise in the Children’s HealthWatch Boston sample. Children’s HealthWatch wrote a brief about the prevalance of food insecurity in Boston.
Increasing Food Insecurity among Families with Young Children in Boston
Though the Great Recession has ended and conditions have improved for middle‐income families, these improvements have not reached low‐income families, who continue to struggle to afford basic necessities.
Rates of child food insecurity among young children in Boston rose by 37% between 2011 and 2012. Child food insecurity is the most severe level of food insecurity; it occurs when children experience reductions in the quality and/or quantity of meals because their parents can no longer buffer them from inadequate household food resources. Child food insecurity dramatically increases children’s risk of poor health, developmental delays, and hospitalizations.
