How is this problem solved and what else can be done?

Editor’s note: The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has increased the number of Americans who don’t always have enough to eatincluding children. The Conversation US asked four experts to explain how common childhood hunger is and what is being done to solve it.

1. How grave a problem is childhood hunger in the U.S.?

Heather Eicher-MillerAssociate Professor of Nutrition Science at Purdue University: Hunger has two very different meanings. It can describe the unpleasant feeling you get after not eating for a while. It is also a long-term physical condition.

People who experience prolonged hunger don’t just feel uncomfortable. They may feel faint or sore and put themselves at increased risk for illness, including asthma, iron deficiency anemia AND poor bone health.

Hunger can of course occur when someone does not eat enough, but it is also a result food insecurity – what happens when you lack money or other means of accessing the right amount of the right type of food.

While hunger is a physical condition, food insecurity is an economic and social situation.

David HimmelgreenProfessor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida: Food insecurity and hunger among children have increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that 50 million Americans suffering from food insecurity by the end of 2020, which means a keen augment compared to 35 million in 2019last year for which official data are available.

Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization, estimated in 2019 that there are 12.5 million children in the U.S. 1 in 6 – at risk of starvation. With the augment in the number American workers unemployed AND children living in povertya team of researchers found in July 2020 that 18 million children – 1 out of 4 – experienced food insecurity at least occasionally, months into the coronavirus pandemic.

Keci JohnsonAssistant Professor of Sociology at Mississippi State University: Children who experience hunger are more likely to get unwell, have a slower recovery, and be hospitalized more often.

Among other things, food insecurity increases the risk obesity, heart disease and diabetes, including for children. And children with nutritional deficiencies are at least twice as likely as other children to have a variety of health problemssuch as anemia, asthma and anxiety.

Children with food security issues may also have more trouble at school than other children and are more vulnerable to social isolation.

2. What actions are being taken to resolve this issue?

Diana Cuy CastellanosAssistant Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of Dayton: Some 15 federal programs support Americans who need support getting enough nutritious food. Programs target a variety of populations, including seniors, low-income individuals, infants and children, and Native American communities, as well as areas where there is a need for emergency assistance due to disasters.

The largest is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP. It provides assistance with food purchases based on income and cost $85.6 billion in the last fiscal year. After a bipartisan relief package passed in December, most families of four can now get $782 per month in assistance through SNAP.

Many people still call these benefits “food stamps,” but now, instead of food stamps, people receive a card that looks like a credit card and includes an allotment of food.

The government also manages Women, babies and children program that provides nutrition assistance to low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and women with at least one child age 5 or younger. In addition, there are school breakfast and lunch programs, as well as Summer Gastronomic Service Programwhich funds free, fit meals and snacks for children and youth from low-income areas during after-school hours.

Many of these programs are targeted at specific segments of the population, such as children and the elderly. They all have something in common: They are designed to support low-income families buy food, so that they can free up more of their circumscribed income for other needs, such as housing and transportation.

Green sky: While federal nutrition programs have helped reduce childhood food insecurity and hunger, only a circumscribed number of Americans who don’t have enough to eat can benefit from them. For example, to receive SNAP in Florida, people can’t have more than $2,001 or $3,001—depending on age and disability—in their savings and checking accounts. Other states have similar but different restrictions, making it tough to estimate how many Americans need support but can’t get it. millions more people than ever before during the pandemic they utilize drive-through restaurants.

Johnson: According to data, there are about 60,000 soup kitchens, feeding programs and food banks. Feeding Americaserving about 40 million people a year. Feeding America and its affiliated food banks and pantries also operate food pantries in schools and backpack programsthat provide students across the country with easy-to-prepare meals, like canned macaroni and cheese and canned beans, that they can take home.

For example, a primary school in Holmes County, Mississippisince 2019, it has been providing participating families with food and other items.

Eicher-Miller: Nutrition education is another way to address food insecurity and support reduce the number of children going hungry. For example, the federal government offers nutrition education to individuals and families who receive SNAP benefits through Educational program for additional food assistanceor SNAP-Ed. Provides comprehensive nutrition education on how to get the most nutrients for your food dollar for many individuals who receive SNAP benefits and may struggle to serve their families fit meals on a circumscribed budget.

The government supports SNAP-Ed in places like soup kitchens, community centers, and food assistance offices. His practical advice on budgeting, cooking classes and nutritional information make families with children less likelihood of food shortagesaccording to my team’s study. When people get the hang of buying the healthiest foods they can on a budget, their kids are less likely to go hungry.

I believe that nutrition education is a gift that is constantly evolving, in the sense that once someone gains knowledge, they can utilize it to ensure food security in the future.

3. What innovations are the most promising?

Where Castellanos is: Food insecurity is a intricate problem for many reasons, including circumscribed access to food for millions of people. fresh fruits and vegetables that everyone should eat.

That’s why I’m glad that people in low-income communities are starting to grow their own food. few grocery stores and opportunities to buy productsWith Los Angeles Down Philadelphia. Non-profit organizations and families grow food on their own properties or utilize empty plots and land belonging to schools or churches.

Some groups such as Full of house AND Mary Farms Mission In Dayton, Ohio, greenhouses were built to extend the growing season and grow root and leafy vegetables, as well as to raise chickens.

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Johnson: A novel community garden is also making a difference in a diminutive, majority-black town. Maben in rural Mississippiwhere there’s nowhere to buy vegetables. Starting in 2019, local leaders approved the conversion of a former school sports field into a community garden. As volunteers from the agricultural cooperative cleared and plowed the field, other volunteers planted and harvested a crop of tomatoes, purple peas, okra and watermelons. The gardeners distributed this first wave of produce mainly to seniors in Maben who used to have family gardens and distributed their own food in previous years.

Green sky: Many pioneering programs are underway across the country to reduce food insecurity and improve the health of low-income Americans.

On “customer’s choice of food“food banquets, customers don’t just receive boxes of free, nutritious items. Instead, they can choose the foods they want and receive recipes and other types of nutrition education. There are also food prescribing programs at hospitals and medical clinics, where patients are screened for food insecurity and, if eligible, are enrolled in SNAP and given support connecting with food banks on site or nearby.

A growing number of nonprofits are also directing people to school soup kitchens, which operate in K-12 public schools and on college campuses. meals on wheels programs which support people who cannot leave their homes.

I believe that programs like these need to be scaled up or replicated wherever possible in areas where there are high levels of food insecurity and childhood hunger and a lack of accessible nonprofit support.