School is out for the summer, and while that means fun and vacation for some families, for others it can mean losing access to important sources of nutrition. Programs like the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option operate during the summer to address the gap in free and reduced-price meals that some children face, but they typically servefewer children than the National School Lunch Programdoes during the traditional academic year.
Generally speaking, food insecurity refers to a lack of access to food for at least one member of the household at some point during the year. But that’s a very broad definition. It could mean, for example, worrying that food will run out, an inability to afford balanced meals, or skipping meals altogether. According to a report by the USDA Economic Research Service, nearly 7.5 million U.S. households with children experienced food insecurity at some time in 2014, including 422,000 households with “very low food security among children” where kids themselves went hungry, skipped meals, or went an entire day without eating. (The report explains that even when parents are food insecure themselves, they are often able to minimize disruptions to the children’s food intake.) So having “low” household food security doesn’t necessarily mean going hungry, and in addition, many families reduce the variety of foods that they eat rather than the amount they eat.
[For more of this story go to http://www.childtrends.org/the...ildren-and-families/]
Comments (0)