Bearing Witness

An incredible achievement: historic decrease in childhood hunger

Sunday, September 09, 2018

If you’ve supported Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign in any way over the past decade, take a bow. Because food insecurity and childhood hunger in the U.S. are now at historic low levels. Our work is not finished but fewer hungry kids in America is an incredible achievement. See my colleague Lisa Davis’s excellent statement on the latest USDA food insecurity data: here.

A couple of the newly published stats are worth highlighting. According to the USDA there are 6.5 million kids in the U.S. who live in households where one or more kids are food insecure, which amounts to 8.9% of all children or less than 1 in 10!  But 17% of kids live in households which experience food insecurity (on the part of the adults living there) which is why we say “1 in 6 kids are living with hunger.”

No child should have to live in a household that struggles with food insecurity. Moving the needle on “1 in 6” will require a commitment to helping kids by helping the adults they live with. That has everything to do with family income, education, housing, health care costs, and employment opportunities.  Complicated stuff, but given what we’ve already accomplished I have no doubt we can bring to bear the same innovation, entrepreneurship, bipartisanship, and bold goals that are the conditions of success.