CHILD HUNGER IN AMERICA

The following article will appear in the May 15, 2002  issue of the
Mid-Hudson Activist Newsletter, published in New Paltz, N.Y., by the
Mid-Hudson National People’s Campaign/IAC.
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CHILD HUNGER IN AMERICA
By Jack A. Smith
Recent studies conducted at Cornell University demonstrate that “hunger
and poverty in the United States are severe enough to significantly
impair the academic and psycho-social development of school-age children
and adolescents,” according to information released to the general
public April 25.  In other new research sponsored by Boston University
and made public May 7, the decline in U.S. welfare benefits and the
deteriorating economy are reported to be  causing further increases in
the number of  hungry and malnourished children.

Nearly 20% of America’s children exist at or below the official poverty
line.  A segment of this destitute community -- amounting to four
million children -- “live in homes where at times, due to lack of
economic resources, there is not enough food,” according to the Cornell
studies. One study links hunger with the cognitive, academic and
psycho-social development of school-age children.  The other examines
how hunger is linked to depression and suicide attempts among
adolescents. The Cornell studies have been published recently in the
Journal of Nutrition and in the journal Pediatrics.  The Boston
University study of clinic admissions was released at a medical
conference in Baltimore. 

"The level of food deprivation in this wealthy nation puts millions of
children at risk for multiple developmental problems," says Katherine
Alaimo, a community health scholar now at the University of Michigan,
who contributed to the findings. "Food is fundamental and food
insufficiency, like other material deprivations such as homelessness,is
stressful for both parents and children and can cause depression,
anxiety and other emotional problems.” 

The Cornell researchers found that “young people, ages 15 to 16, in
homes where there is not always enough to eat, are five times more
likely to attempt suicide, compared with well-fed adolescents. They also
are four times more likely to suffer from chronic, low-grade depression
(dysthymia), which is a high-risk factor for major depression, are
almost twice as likely to have been suspended from school, and have more
problems getting along with their peers.  Young people, ages 6 to 11,
who live in families without enough food are twice as likely to have
seen a psychologist, 1.4 times more likely to have repeated a grade and
to have significantly lower math scores.”

The Boston University study, found that there has been “a 45% increase
in the ranks of hungry children” treated at the Boston Medical Center
and at a large medical clinic in Minneapolis from 1999 to 2001.  The
Boston Globe reported “researches found that the percentage of hungry
children coming into Boston Medical and the Minneapolis clinic rose from
9% of all infants and toddlers to 14% during the two years studies.”


This study of 3,000 children has a national application. The two medical
facilities were selected for investigation because they are located in
states that are judged to have retained relatively adequate social
service programs.  “If the status of children in those states is
deteriorating,” the Boston newspaper explained, “those findings could
act as a warning of more severe problems in other states.”

According to  Boston Medical Center social worker Patience Sampson, “We
have a lot of kids that look like skin and bones.”  She attributed the
nutritional decline to the increasing number of families lacking funds
to purchase sufficient food, those ruled ineligible for food stamps or
who are kept ignorant that they qualify, and to the fact that many
“parents are spending so much time working multiple jobs that they can’t
prepare nutritionally balanced meals, opting instead for fast food.”

Dr. Deborah Frank, the Boston University physician who directed the
study, commented that the findings “should be a wake-up call to people.
This says there are canaries in our social mine,” suggesting that
welfare cutbacks and the weak economy are creating havoc for the poor.
“We should scrutinize what we are doing to our children,” she concluded.

Christine Olson, a Cornell nutritional sciences professor engaged in
research for the academic and psycho-social study of school children,
pointed out that "Unlike many other factors that contribute to
psychological, developmental or social problems, this one [hunger] is
fairly straightforward to address. We need public policies that ensure
that families have access to enough nutritionally adequate and safe food
for an active healthy life."  

At present, however, federal food programs are suffering from cutbacks
due to the government decision to “end welfare as we know it,” and
private voluntary food distribution agencies are reporting that demand
for food exceeds supplies to the extent that many poor people are being
turned away.  The Bush administration’s welfare reform proposals and
social programs contain nothing to address these problems.  Meanwhile,
President Bush recently asked Congress for an additional $27.1 billion
in immediate funding to pursue the war on terrorism.  This is unrelated
to the $48 billion increase in the 2003 Pentagon budget, which will
bring total military spending to almost $400 billion. 



---*--- 
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