Childhood hunger

Future of Children

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 128-137

  Lewit, Eugene M ^a   Kerrebrock, Nancy ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHILD WELFARE; HUMAN; HUNGER; MALNUTRITION; POLICY; POVERTY; REVIEW; SOCIAL WELFARE; SOCIOECONOMICS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0031400401     PISSN: 10548289     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/1602585     Document Type: Review

References (23)

1. Graham, G.G. Commentary. Pediatrics 75,1:118.
2. Smith, K.S. The twenty million. Commonweal (January 15, 1988) 115,1:5.
3. Food Research and Action Center. Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project: A survey of childhood hunger in the United States. Washington, DC: FRAC, July 1995, p. 22.
4. Briefel, R.R., and Woteki, C.E. Development of food sufficiency questions for the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Journal of Nutrition Education (January/February Supplement 1992) 24,1:24S.
5. Food Research and Action Center. Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project: A survey of childhood hunger in the United States. Executive summary. Unpublished report. March 1991, p. vi. Available from the Food Research and Action Center, 1875 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 540, Washington, DC 20009.
6. Food security questionnaire: Supplement to the April 1995 Current Population Survey. Unpublished document obtained from Gary Bickel, Food and Consumer Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, VA; see also, Anderson, S.A., ed. Core indicators of nutritional state for difficult-to-sample populations. Bethesda, MD: Life Sciences Research Office, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 1990, p. 1560.
7. See note no. 6, Food security questionnaire.
8. U.S. Conference of Mayors. A status report on hunger and homelessness in America's cities: 1995. Unpublished report. 1995. Available from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1620 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
9. For example, an increase in the number of people served by a given food pantry need not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of an increase in the number of hungry people in the neighborhood of the pantry; the hungry population might have remained unchanged while the fraction of the hungry population served by a pantry increased because of increases in donations of food to the pantry.
10. U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Hunger. Food security in the United States. Committee report. 101st Cong., 2nd sess., October 1990, p. 15.
11. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Service. Conference on Food Security Measurement and Research: Papers and proceeding, January 21-22, 1994. Washington, DC: DHHS and USDA, 1994, p. 48.
12. Ronette Briefel, Senior Research Epidemiologist, Nutrition Policy Advisor. National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Hyattsville, MD. Personal communication, September 10, 1996.
13. The USDA tested the sensitivity of reported food insufficiency to the inclusion of the qualitative response (option 2) in a small sample test in 1994 and in the Food Security Supplement to the April 1995 Current Population Survey. In that survey, the question was asked both with option 2 (as in the USDA surveys) and without option 2 (as in the NHANES III). Without the qualitative option, responses to option 3, "sometimes or often not enough," were approximately twice as frequent as when the qualitative option was available. Gary Bickel, Program Analyst. Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, VA. Personal communication, May 3, 1996.
14. At present, there are no plans to continue the CCHIP surveys. Nancy O'Conner, Development Associate, Food Research and Action Center. Personal communication with Linda Baker, August 15, 1996.
15. The definition of the term low income differs among the four surveys discussed in this article. In the three government surveys, low income is defined as households with income not greater than 130% of the federal poverty line. In the CCHIP, low income is defined as households with incomes not greater than 185% of the federal poverty line. In both instances, the choice to define low income to include levels above the federal poverty line was based on the recognition that the link between poverty and hunger does not disappear until households reach income levels well above the federal poverty line. Eligibility criteria for federal food assistance programs also played a role in the choice of definition: above 130% of the federal poverty line, households become ineligible for the Food Stamps Program and for free meals in the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, while above 185% of the federal poverty line, children become ineligible for the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and for reduced prices in the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.
16. Data presented in an internal memo from Renee Powell to Peter Basiotis, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, and obtained by personal communication from Gary Bickel, Program Analyst, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC.
17. The relative stability in food insufficiency rates despite the growth in the number reporting food insufficiency is the result of growth in the overall U.S. population during the period.
18. Life Sciences Research Office. Third report on nutrition monitoring. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995, p. ES-19, Table ES-5.
19. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1995. 115th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995, Table 747.
20. See note no. 19, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Table 14.
21. See note no. 3, Food Research and Action Center. Four million children under age 12 are hungry, according to this report.
22. See note no. 3, Food Research and Action Center, p. 40; see also, note no. 18, Life Sciences Research Office, p. ES-19, Table ES-6.
23. McMurry, D. The several faces of hunger: A review of the amount and types of information available to the public on domestic hunger, 1967-1990. National Journal of Sociology (Winter 1991) 5,2:104.