The Facts About Child Hunger

Childhood hunger in America is a hidden but devastating problem. We know that even brief periods of hunger seriously impair a child's ability to learn and grow.

• Thirteen million children in America are hungry or are at risk of hunger.
• Every fourth person standing in a soup kitchen line is a child.
• Every year a child grows up in poverty costs $9,000 in lost future productivity over his or her working life.
• Just $4.13 a day can provide a child with three healthy, nutritious meals.
• Each school day almost 16 million at-risk children receive a free or reduced-price school lunch. Unfortunately most of these needy children don't receive this same lunch during the summer when they are out of school. As a result hunger among children rises during the summer months.
• Medical research shows that even short periods of undernourishment can have harmful effects on children's health and learning.
• After a summer of poor nutrition, low-income children can start the school year lagging behind their well-fed peers.
• While all of these children are eligible to receive a summer lunch through the Summer Food Service Program, only three million children at risk of hunger currently receive these summer meals.
• The other 13 million children either don't know the meals are available or community programs, schools and churches in their area don't know they can access funds from the Summer Food Service Program to provide meals to hungry children in their community.
• For children who receive them, these summer lunches provide one-third of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for many vitamins and nutrients. And meals are usually served alongside recreational and educational activities that encourage children to participate.
• For children in very poor homes, school lunch at 11:30am may be the last substantial meal of the day. Some may not eat again until 7:00pm after a parent has returned home from work.
• Afterschool snack and dinner programs can close the afternoon nutrition gap by funding meals at afterschool programs in low-income communities.
• Unfortunately, far too few afterschool programs take advantage of these opportunities to provide federally funded meals.
• Many after-school program providers report that lack of equipment such as refrigeration, storage or food transport prevent them from accessing the federal funds available for paying the cost of snacks and/or dinner for their participating children.
• Children at risk of hunger need more than just regular meals. Along with their parents, they need to know how to make healthy food choices so that they can get as much nutrition benefit as possible from the food they
  eat.
• Many food banks and other social service agencies provide nutrition education classes for low-income parents and their children to help provide critically needed nutrition information. These classes give parents and
  children practical information and hands-on experience in preparing healthy meals with limited resources.

Together, We Can End Childhood Hunger in America

Our role:

By participating in The Great American Bake Sale and supporting Share Our Strength, you can be a part of the team creating America's first hunger-free generation.

You have the power to make a difference in the lives of children in your own community and across the country and your efforts are vital. People like you holding bake sales can have real impact against childhood hunger in America.

Sources: United States Department of Agriculture, America's Second Harvest, Children's Defense Fund, and Food Research and Action Center.