Childhood Hunger

• 1 in 4 people in a soup kitchen line is a CHILD (Hunger in America 2006)
  

• 13 million American Children are food insecure, meaning they were hungry or at risk of hunger (United States Department of Agriculture, Household Food Security in the United States, March 2001)
  

• 36% of the members of households served by America’s Second Harvest are children under 18 years old (American’s Second Harvest:Hunger in America 2006)
  

• Recent research indicates that even mild under nutrition experienced by children during critical periods of growth may lead to reductions in physical growth and affect brain development (The Links Between Nutrition and Cognitive Development of Children, 1998, Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy).
  

• According to the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) survey of families living below 185 percent of poverty -- the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) -- hungry children suffer from two to four times as many individual health problems, such as unwanted weight loss, fatigue, headaches, irritability, inability to concentrate and frequent colds, as low-income children whose families do not experience food shortages. Eliminating hunger in these children can save money on healthcare costs, because these hunger-related illnesses would not occur.
  

• Also according to FRAC, Hunger has a negative impact on children's ability to learn in school. School-aged children who are hungry cannot concentrate or do as well as others on the tasks they need to perform to learn the basics. 
  

Food Research and Action Center - This site is a great resource for childhood hunger issues, news and alerts related to childhood hunger, and child nutrition programs.