Children, Hunger & Nutrition: New Opportunities in 2003

Children face terrible consequences when they don't get the food they need: their learning, growth, health, and development are all jeopardized when they don't have enough food or enough of the right food. What's more, the current economic situation likely will make things worse for the millions of children in the United States who live in homes where there's not enough food for everyone (Center on Hunger and Poverty, 2002).

At the same time, a recent and sharp increase in childhood obesity presents a new challenge to children's well-being and success. If children don't receive the healthy food they need each and every day, too many will continue to confront hunger, obesity, or both.

This year, there's a terrific opportunity to improve and reform the core national children's nutrition programs, when the U.S. Congress and the White House reconsider them for the first time since 1998. These programs provide a strong framework for preventing childhood hunger and obesity, but they can and should do more to provide all children with adequate and nutritious food. The federal Child Nutrition programs up for reconsideration include WIC (for Women, Infants, and Children), School Lunch and Breakfast, Summer Lunch, Afterschool Snack, and Child and Adult Care Food.

Five major proposals will provide more food and better nutrition to all children in need:

Keep school lunch the popular, user-friendly program it is for kids, families, and schools. School lunch is the cornerstone of all child nutrition: it ensures that most low-income children and many other children eat at least one adequate and healthy meal every school day. A recent study questioned whether too many children were being qualified for free lunches. While program integrity is important, any reforms must not increase the cost, burden, or stigma on participating schools and families. Otherwise, fewer children in need will receive this important meal.

Help children learn by serving a school breakfast to every child. Less than half of the low-income children who eat a school lunch also eat a school breakfast—despite countless studies showing that breakfast improves academic performance and behavior and contributes to healthy growth and development. Successful school models across the country provide breakfast free to all children in the school and serve breakfast in the classroom. Let's close this key nutrition gap for kids and make breakfast a regular part of their school day.

Serve more kids food when they're out of school: in summer months and before and after school. Only 2 out of 5 low-income children who receive a school lunch also receive a lunch in the summer months. One reason for this gap is that red tape makes it too difficult for community-based organizations to serve nutritious meals and snacks at their summer, after-school, and other child-care programs.

What's needed is a new seamless program combining the existing Summer Food and Child Care Food programs: this would cut paperwork in half and create more safe spaces with healthy meals for kids in the out-of-school hours. Also, schools can help more by participating in the current national initiative allowing schools to serve children food year-round through a seamless Summer Lunch and School Lunch program. This initiative should now be made permanent.

Provide more very young children with healthy food through WIC. Although the WIC program has been shown to save health care dollars and improve early learning outcome, it is still not fully funded to serve all low-income infants, young children, and women who are pregnant or nursing.

In addition, as state budgets tighten and private funding is stretched, the public health infrastructure supporting WIC is likely to be jeopardized. The end result will be infants and children without access to WIC's effective services. Adequate federal funding is needed for the nutritious WIC food provided to women and children and for the nutrition services dollars necessary to keep clinics open, staff trained, referrals effective and support intact.

Help prevent childhood obesity by providing more nutritious foods in schools. All foods and drinks available before, during, or after school should meet the USDA nutrition standards in a manner that appeals to children and promotes an increase in participation in school meals.