Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260555
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Millions more children are estimated to be at risk of hunger, meaning a full one-fourth of the nation's children from birth to age 12 are suffering from food-shortage problems, said the study conducted by the Food Research and Action Center, a nutrition advocacy organization based here.
The danger is not just poor nutrition. Children who don't get enough to eat are more apt to be tired, irritable, unable to concentrate and prone to headaches and other illnesses that keep them out of school, the study said.
The three-year, million-dollar, door-to-door survey looked at seven areas of the United States where the characteristics of the low-income population reflected the low-income population of the country overall.
The people surveyed came from families whose annual income was 185 percent of the poverty level or less. Since the government's poverty level in 1990 for a family of four was $12,700, such families at 185 percent of poverty would earn $23,495.
The 185 percent figure was used because it is the one used to determine eligibility for free school lunches and food stamps.
Families with hungry children are poor; their incomes are an average 25 percent below the poverty line, the study said. While these families spent nearly one-third of their income on food, that amounted to only 68 cents per person per meal.
The surveyors found that hungry children were two to three times more likely than other low-income children to have such health problems as unwanted weight loss, fatigue, irritability, headaches and inability to concentrate.
These youngsters were absent from school almost twice as much as other children, the report said.
Robert Fersh, executive director of the Food Research and Action Center, said the study arose from a debate during the 1980s as to whether hunger really existed in the United States.
Although local feeding programs, state networks and regional coalitions were talking about growing hunger problems, especially among families with children, many policymakers for President Reagan were discounting these reports as anecdotal, Fersh said.
"In 1984, the President's Task Force on Food Assistance concluded that it could not `report definitive evidence on the extent of hunger' because an acceptable measure had not yet been developed," he said.
He said the findings may be gloomy, but the hunger problems can be solved through programs that already exist. All the government has to do is boost funding so they'll reach all the eligible people, he said.
The report recommended:
Increasing the appropriation for the Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Expanding the school breakfast program and protecting the school lunch program from cuts.
Expanding the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program for Children so that youngsters who are not in school won't go hungry.
Improving access to food stamps.
by CNB