While volumes of medical research and years of practitioner experience all point to the critical period of brain and body development during the first few years of life, we continue to see rates of food insecurity among young children remain too high. This puts their health and development at risk, which can have long lasting effects into adulthood.

Now is not the time to scale back on our public infrastructure that are designed to provide families with access to adequate, nutritious food. On the contrary, our public policies should be geared to systematically reduce the negative effect of food insecurity among families, especially families with young children living in poverty.