By Joel Berg | May 24, 2010

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Event: Ending Childhood Hunger in America

Child Hunger by the Numbers

Even before the worst of the current economic downturn, child hunger was a serious problem in the United States. In 2008, 16.6 million American children—more than one in five—lived in homes that couldn’t afford enough food for their families. The Great Recession has only made matters worse.

Child hunger in the world’s wealthiest nation is not only morally unacceptable, but it costs the U.S. economy at least $28 billion per year because poorly nourished children perform less well in school and require far more long-term health care spending. Further, food insufficiency severely hampers children’s emotional, intellectual, and physical development, and it strongly hinders the upward mobility of their parents.

President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, have set a national goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015. Reaching this goal is critical to cutting poverty in half in 10 years, which is the primary aim of the Half In Ten Campaign, a partnership among the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Poverty and hunger are interrelated problems, and the steps we take to eradicate child hunger will ultimately lay a solid foundation for realizing the ambitious but achievable poverty reduction target. Likewise, limiting poverty will reduce hunger and make it far less expensive for the nation to end hunger entirely.

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On March 26, 2010, 9:30am – 11:00am please join the Center for American Progress’s Doing What Works project and the Half in Ten campaign (a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Coalition on Human Needs) for a panel discussion on how innovative policymakers are already reshaping the antipoverty safety net, and what additional steps government must take to reform antipoverty programs.

Click here to learn more, RSVP or watch the live webcast the day of the event.
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A majority of Americans polled in 2008 by the Half in Ten Campaign knew of a family member who was experiencing poverty. The situation has since worsened, with unemployment near double digits and data revealing one in six Americans living in a household struggling against hunger. These circumstances demand congressional action.

As we develop policies to promote economic recovery and create jobs, it is essential that we recognize the hard truth about poverty in so many of our nation’s communities.  That is why I hope you can attend the first in the Half in Ten campaign’s briefing series, “Restoring Economic Opportunity: The Need for a Recovery that Cuts Poverty in Half in Ten Years”

The first briefing in the series is entitled “The Starting Line: Poverty and Economic Opportunity Before, During, and After the Recession.” At the briefing, Center for American Progress Action Fund economist Heather Boushey will discuss how the recession has brought economic hardship to many American families, the labor market problems underscoring this hardship, and policy solutions to help jumpstart job creation. She will be joined by Dr. Deborah A. Frank of Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic for Children, who will describe the long-term health effects on children of growing up with hunger and poverty and federal programs that can help in mitigating some of these effects. Finally, Kelly Dolberry, a resident of DC’s Park Road Family Shelter, will discuss how the recession has affected her family.

Date: March 12, 2010

Time: 11:00 AM -12:30 PM

Room: Capitol Visitors Center, Room HVC-200, Washington DC

Heather Boushey, Senior Economist, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Kelly Dolberry, Resident, Park Road Family Shelter

Dr. Deborah A. Frank, Director, Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic for Children

Moderated by Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Half in Ten partner.

Please RSVP to lpereyra@americanprogress.org.

And save the date for the next briefing in our series, which will be held on April 9!

When: Tuesday, December 8, 2:00 – 3:00p.m., Eastern time

In just one year, the number of people in households that sometimes lacked the money for enough nutritious food rose from 36 million to 49 million – the highest number on record. Among them were 17 million children – 4 million more in 2008 than in 2007.

This is called food insecurity. The recession is making it worse.
It is hurting children.

Learn More:

• What the USDA food security survey means
• How to use the data compellingly, simply, and accurately
• Research showing how food insecurity hurts children
• What policy choices can halt this very disturbing trend

Presenters:

• James D. Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
• Dr. Deborah Frank, Founder and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch; Professor of Pediatrics at Boston U. School of Medicine and Director of the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center
• Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
• Moderator: George A. Braley, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy, Feeding America

Register

Robert Greenstein, founder and executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, spoke at the Center for American Progress on Friday, December 5 about CAP’s proposed economic recovery package. Referring to the current recession as probably the longest and deepest since World War II, Greenstein highlighted the severe unemployment crisis and its relationship to poverty. CBPP recently released a report predicting the number of people in poverty will rise by between 7.5 million and 10.3 million.
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On Monday, December 8, the Center for American Progress Action Fund will host two panels on how the Obama administration can use its existing authority to best promote the interests of workers. Governor Jon Corzine will keynote the event, discussing the steps New Jersey is taking to protect workers’ rights and how the Obama administration can draw on state innovations.
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On December 9 from 10 am-12 pm, the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution will hold a forum to discuss a new paper by Rebecca M. Blank of the Brookings Institution and Mark H. Greenberg of Georgetown University and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, proposing a new poverty measure that better reflects the actual economic conditions of low-income Americans.
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At a panel hosted by Half in Ten and the National Unemployment Law Project, Paula Stein provided an unemployed worker’s perspective on the current unemployment crisis.

After sharing her story, Paula noted the need for Congress to take action to help workers like her, saying ” Losing your job is devastating enough, especially when unprepared; but having the newspaper, television, radio and everyone you talk to tell you how much the economy is in trouble is very depressing and overwhelming. I know for myself, I am trying to do the very best I can with the little I have. Something has to give somewhere or there will be far more foreclosures, more lay-offs, more crime, more illness, more deaths and less faith, less compassion, less quality of life. Our economy doesn’t just affect people’s pocketbooks; it affects their very essence of being an independent whole person. It affects health, heart, head and hand.”
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Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wa) will host a briefing on Friday, November 14 at 12:30 pm for other members of Congress and their staffs. This briefing will highlight two proposals that offer the greatest hope for simultaneously boosting the economy, assisting state governments, and helping many of the more than 10 million unemployed workers in our labor market today.
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On November 14 from 10:00-11:30 am, Half in Ten, ACORN, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Coalition on Human Needs, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the National Employment Law Project will co-host a special event on the unemployment crisis.

Unemployment Insurance is a cornerstone of economic security and the first line of defense when jobs disappear, preventing families from falling into poverty, and infusing spending into the local economies hardest hit by unemployment. This safety net has never been more important than right now as Congress debates new measures to stimulate the economy: we have lost more than a million jobs since January, and the unemployment rate is likely heading to levels not seen since the serious recession of the early 1980s. Read more »