Trump plan increases childhood hunger

A plan to cut SNAP benefits will increase childhood hunger. Read this guest blog from the Food Research & Action Center.

In the richest country in the world, in 2019, children are still going to bed at night hungry. They go to school unable to focus on learning because they’re distracted by their basic needs. We don’t lack for food in this country, but we lack the political will to provide for people who need it, and that’s shameful.

The statistics are appalling. About 15 million children in the United States — 21 percent of all children — live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, who struggle to afford basic necessities and often have to choose between groceries, shelter, and medical care. 

Children bring the debilitating effects of poverty with them to school every day — when a child comes in from the cold with no jacket, or when no one is home at the end of the day because parents are working two and three jobs, or when kids are skipping meals or are shamed in the school cafeteria line and denied a nutritious lunch because their parents owe debt to cover the cost.

Read More…

More to explorer