By Joel Berg | May 24, 2010

Read the full report (pdf)

Download the executive summary (pdf)

Download to mobile devices and e-readers from Scribd

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.

Read more »

Joy Moses of The Center for American Progress has written a piece that introduces the many poverty-fighting aspects of Obama’s proposed budget.

The budget includes measures ranging from a commitment to end childhood hunger by 2015, to increased funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, to extending aid for veterans at risk of homelessness.

Click here to read Moses’ article, “Helping Those Most in Need.”

February 9, 2009

From The Center for American Progress

“It is insane, and morally bankrupt, for a nation with this much wealth to allow [hunger] to continue,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, at a Center for American Progress event Friday morning. At the event, CAP Policy Analyst Joy Moses led a panel discussion on the importance of a new U.S. commitment to end food insecurity and hunger for all Americans.

Read more »

by the Center for American Progress’s Alexandra Cawthorne

The U.S. Conference of Mayors released on Friday the results of its 2008 Hunger and Homelessness Survey, which surveys 25 major cities. The report adds to this year’s grim economic news, finding that hunger and homelessness have grown significantly in a number of cities over the last year, especially among working families with children. Read more »

From our friends at the Food Research and Action Center

Congress is on recess until December 8th, but more layoffs and pay cuts are happening every day, and hunger is growing every day. Here are four ways that you can act over the next few days to initiate meaningful solutions to eliminate hunger in our communities.
Read more »

By the Center for American Progress’ Alexandra Cawthorne

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its annual report on food security in America yesterday, which showed that one in eight Americans—over 36 million people—struggled to feed themselves during 2007. And that was even before the economic downturn.
Read more »

Low-income Americans are especially feeling the pinch of rising expenses and the floundering economy. Many families try to meet the high cost of housing, energy, and health care before they deal with staggeringly high food prices. An estimated 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children, are now food insecure. From September 2007 to September 2008, the cost of food rose 7.6 percent. In a post-election Alliance to End Hunger poll, 58% of American voters said they have been impacted by rising food prices. These higher food costs are the most dramatic for low-income people—between September 2007 and September 2008, the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan (a U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate of the cheapest necessary food) rose 10.3 percent.
Read more »