Get The Facts .... Childhood Hunger Poverty Poverty line = $17,600/yr for a family of three or $21,200/yr for a family of four in 2008 Every 36 seconds a baby is born into poverty in the US. 12.8 million or approximately 17.4% of children in the U.S. live in poverty. The rate of poverty for children under 18 remains higher than those aged 18- to- 64 and for those aged 65 and over.  16.9% of PA children under age 18 lived below the poverty level in 2006. In 2005, the child poverty rate for Pennsylvania was 11.9%. In Allegheny County, 44,087 lived below the poverty line in 2006. In the City of Pittsburgh, 33.6% lived below the poverty level in 2006. Hunger and Nutrition Hunger is the lack of access to sufficient food due to poverty or constrained resources. "At risk of hunger" or "food insecure" refers to the lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times due to lack of financial resources. According to the USDA, an estimated 12.6 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2006 Every fourth person standing in a soup kitchen line is a child. Children are twice as likely as adults to live in households where someone experiences hunger. Research indicates that even mild undernutrition experienced by young children during critical periods of growth impacts the behavior of children, their school performance, and their overall cognitive development Hungry children suffer two to four times as many health problems as those who are not and are more likely to be ill or absent from school. Hungry children are less likely to interact with other people or explore or learn from their surroundings. Hunger interferes with their ability to learn from an early age. Chronic hunger causes anxiety, low self-esteem and hostility in children. Federal Food Assistance Programs The government's responsibility is to provide for those who can't provide for themselves. Government nutrition programs can help off-set threats to children's capacity to learn and perform in school, which result from inadequate nutrient intake. 10,688,538 children received Food Stamps in 2007. More than half of all Food Stamp recipients are children. 29,601,224 Children participated in the School Lunch Program in 2007 During the 2005 federal fiscal year, 17.5 million low-income children received free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program.  Just under two million of these same income-eligible children participated in the Summer Food Service Program that same year. More than 18,000 infants and children benefit from the WIC Program in Pennsylvania. Homelessness One third of homeless people in the U.S. are children. About 1.4 million children will experience homelessness over the course of a year. Children without a home are in fair or poor health twice as often as other children, and have higher rates of asthma, ear infections, stomach problems, and speech problems. Many homeless children and youth don't get help from federal and state programs because they move so often. 30,000 homeless children are estimated to exist in Pennsylvania Health 9.4 million children in the U.S. do not have health insurance (2007). In 2007, 6,114,018 children were enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a program which provides health insurance coverage low-income children in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line) and 27,873,481 children were enrolled in Medicaid 23.9% of two year olds are not fully immunized Poor children are twice as likely as non-poor children to suffer stunted growth or lead poisoning or be kept back in school. How to Help Join Just Harvest today. Call 412-431-8960 to find out how. Contact your Congressperson and urge them to make federal assistance programs more accessible to poor people.   Sources:Allegheny County Health Department WIC Program, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bread for the World Institute, Center on Hunger and Poverty, Children's Defense Fund, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), National Coalition for the Homeless, Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center,Children’s Defense Fund, Share Our Strength, Urban Institute, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,US Census Bureau, PA Department of Education. Compiled by the Just Harvest Education Fund April 2008   Click HERE to return to the About Hunger and Poverty Page