In Maryland, 1 in 5 children, or about 260,000, struggle with food insecurity, the Maryland Food Bank found. Of those, 30,650 live in Baltimore. About 30 percent of Baltimore families are considered food insecure, according Children’s HealthWatch, a network of pediatricians, public health researchers and policy experts.

The impact of hunger and food insecurity is not just physiological, said Maureen Black, a professor in the pediatrics department at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Children also suffer when parents are so concerned about how to pay for the next meal that they neglect some of their other needs.

“Parents who are worried and anxious are less available,” Black said. “They are less in tuned to how that child did on that spelling test.”