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A study, titled "The Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger: Estimated Annual
Burden to the United States," finds that the U.S. pays more than $90
billion annually for the direct and indirect costs of hunger-related
charities, illness and psychosocial dysfunction and the impact of less
education/lower productivity. These costs are borne by all Americans.
A new report by the Food Research and Action Center entitled State of the States provides a comprehensive state-by-state snapshot of the extent of hunger, and of states' use of federal nutrition resources to address needs. The federal nutrition programs covered are: Food Stamps, School Lunch, School Breakfast, Summer Food, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), WIC, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). The report also details economic and social indicators such as food insecurity, poverty, unemployment, and minimum wage levels. To read the Southwest Regional Profile click here.
• Position of the American Dietetic Association: Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States, adajournal.org, March 2006
The American Dietetic Association published a position paper, “Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States,” in which it calls for “systematic and sustained action” to “bring an end to domestic food insecurity and hunger and to achieve food and nutrition security for all in the United States.” The association pointed out that immediate and long-range interventions against hunger should include “adequate funding for and increased utilization of food and nutrition assistance programs, the inclusion of food and nutrition education in all programs providing food and nutrition assistance, and innovative programs to promote and support the economic self-sufficiency of individuals and families.” Food insecurity, which was experienced by more than 38 million people in 2004, is associated with negative nutritional and nonnutritional outcomes in adults, adolescents, and children, such as poor diet and nutritional status, poor health, increased risk for the development of chronic diseases, poor psychological and cognitive functioning, and substandard academic achievement. The association emphasized that “dietetics professionals can play a key role in ending food insecurity and hunger” through “food and nutrition education, competent and collaborative practice, innovative research related to accessing a safe and secure food supply, and advocacy efforts at the local, state, regional, and national levels.”
“This study provides the strongest empirical evidence to date that food insecurity is linked to specific developmental consequences for children, and that those consequences may be both nutritional and non-nutritional,” the authors wrote in their summary. The researchers looked at longitudinal data for a nationally representative sample of more than 21,000 children in nearly 1,600 elementary schools, who were tracked from kindergarten through third grade.
The study found that food insecure children – both boys and girls – had smaller increases in math and reading scores over time. In addition, food insecure girls evidenced greater gains in weight and body mass index (BMI) than food secure girls. Food insecure boys showed greater declines in social skills than food secure boys. The researchers concluded that: “Food insecurity serves as an important marker for identifying children with delayed trajectories of development.”
• Household Food Insecurity and Overweight Status in Young School Children: Results From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, finds that young school children in food insecure households are 20 percent less likely to be overweight than food secure children. This report by Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, examines the relation between food insecurity and weight in young school children. The study used a nationally representative sample of 16,889 children and U.S. Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Scale to assess their food access status. The study found that overall, 11.2 percent of the girls and 11.8 percent of the boys were overweight, but children from food insecure households were 20 percent less likely to be overweight than their food secure counterparts. Low levels of physical activity and television watching more than two hours per day, high birth weight, black or Latino ethnicity, and low income were related to overweight status. The study’s authors, Donald Rose and J. Nicholas Bodor, say that lower obesity rates are not a reason to ignore the needs of food insecure people: “In addition to concerns for equity of access to food, there are strong arguments for reducing food insecurity based on society’s interest in improving the productivity of its next generation. … Food insecurity or hunger is associated with negative academic outcomes and poor psychological functioning at school, adverse health outcomes, and poor mental health.”
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