By Ashley Baughman

At the national Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in March, I was surprised to find that more advocates attended this year than ever before. With so many organizations facing cutbacks due to the recession, this turnout shows real dedication. And I couldn’t help wonder whether this year’s focus on childhood hunger, coupled with the potential of a new administration, helped to spark interest and inspire action.

Discussing childhood hunger is especially important now, considering the Obama administration’s goal to end child hunger by 2015 and the fact that the child nutrition programs (including school lunch and breakfast, summer meals and WIC) are up for reauthorization. Change can’t come soon enough. The statistics are shocking:

• Half of all New York City children live below 200 percent of poverty (research has shown that families need an income of at least 250 percent of poverty — or approximately $46,000 for a family of three — to afford basic necessities in New York City).
• More than half (56 percent) of all households with children in New York City reported having difficulty affording needed food in 2008 — 24 percent just since 2007.
• One out of every four (25 percent) New York City households with children would be unable to afford food immediately after losing their household income, up 25 percent since 2003.

Children who have inadequate access to nutritious food are 90 percent more likely to have fair/poor health than excellent/good health and are more likely to have low achievement in school. This in turn jeopardizes their long-term prospects since children starting out at a disadvantage are very likely to remain at a disadvantage.

Learn more about the problem of childhood hunger in our recent policy report, Child Hunger: The Unhealthy Return on Missed Investments, and stay tuned to Bank on It for more updates on this topic.