Research Program on Childhood Hunger, Task Order #2

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

Food insecurity is a serious problem facing children in the U.S. In 2008, about one-infive children were food insecure insofar as they lived in families without the financial means to access enough food to sustain active, healthy living (Nord et aI., 2009). These rates are for the full population of children - the rates among low-income children are over twice as high. The problem of food insecurity has become particularly acute in recent years including an unprecedented increase of over 30% from 2007 to 2008. That children in the U.S. are going without sufficient amounts of food is of concern in its own right. What makes food insecurity of even greater public health interest is its association with negative health outcomes. Previous research, spanning numerous empirical studies, has found that children in families suffering from food insecurity are more likely to have fair or poor general health (Chilton et aI., 2009; Cook et aI., 2004; Cook et aI., 2006; Dunifon and Kowaleski-Jones, 2003; Gundersen and Kreider, 2009; Kirkpatrick et aI., 2010; Weinreb et aI., 2002; Y00 et aI., 2009), psychosocial problems (Alaimo et aI, 2001; Alaimo et aI., 2002; Kleinman et aI., 1998; Murphy et aI., 1998; Weinreb et aI., 2002), frequent stomachaches and headaches (Alaimo et aI., 200 I), increased odds of being hospitalized (Cook et aI., 2004), greater propensities to have seen a psychologist (Alaimo et aI., 2001), behavior problems (Slack and Yoo, 2005; Whitaker et aI., 2006), reduced intakes of important nutrients (Kaiser et aI., 2002; Kaiser et aI., 2003; Matheson et aI., 2002), worse developmental outcomes (Hernandez and Jacknowitz, 2009; Jyoti et aI., 2005; Rose-Jacobs et aI., 2008), more chronic illnesses (Weinreb et aI., 2002), impaired functioning (Murphy et aI., 1998), impaired mental proficiency (Zaslow et aI., 2009), and higher levels of iron deficiency with anemia (Eicher-Miller et aI., 2009; Skalicky et aI., 2006).
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date9/29/109/28/15

Funding

  • US Department of Agriculture: $1,997,052.00

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