8 Food Insecurity

Introduction

Food insecurity is defined as the limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate foods, as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2021). In 2020, 7.6% of households with children were food insecure. This translates to around 6.1 million children (USDA, 2021).

Though food insecurity affects many children, there are factors that predispose certain groups of people. For example, around 7% of white households were food insecure compared to around 17% of Hispanic households and around 22% of black households (USDA, 2021). Geography can also play a role in the risk for food insecurity. The figure below shows that food insecurity is much higher in Southern and landlocked states than anywhere else in the United States (USDA, 2021).

Potential Adverse Effects

Food insecurity can have negative effects on a child’s health and development. Some important issues include obesity and loss of control eating, learning disabilities, and behavioral issues. It is important to make parents and guardians aware of these effects because they can develop into long-term issues.

Loss of Control Eating and Obesity

Loss of control eating, or LOC, is when a kid eats a large amount of food in a short amount of time and feels out of control. A study published by Caroline West in Appetite (2021) found that LOC eating in children is positively associated with high household food insecurity. This is because families may experience “feast-famine” cycles that are similar to LOC eating. The “feast-famine” cycle refers to binge eating following a period of time that someone went without eating. This could be a pattern developed from an eating disorder, but in the case of feast-famine, it is because households either do not have access to or do not have the resources to get food. This also develops the habit of eating high calorie foods (West et al., 2021).

Another study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal (Oyama et al., 2021) found that food insecurity could be linked to body fat percentage. When surveying boys at age 14, it was reported that those from food insecure households had a greater percentage of body fat and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) than boys from food secure households (Oyama et al., 2021). In 2017, the odds of being obese for a food insecure child was 4.9 times greater than those that didn’t live in that environment (Kral et al., 2017).

This relationship could be explained by a few factors. Food insecurity is more prevalent among houses that live under the poverty line (Kral et al., 2017). Healthy food is generally more expensive than processed or fast food. With a limited budget, it makes more sense to purchase food that is less expensive and unfortunately less healthy, than buying healthy food that will not feed the entire family. Higher rates of obesity could also be caused by the stress of living paycheck to paycheck and not knowing where your next meal will come from. Because of this, children that are food insecure show higher rates of eating past satiation, or being full, which results in overeating (Kral et al., 2017).

Developmental Disabilities

Children have very specific nutritional needs because they are constantly growing and developing. Children who experience food insecurity are most likely not meeting these nutritional needs, making them two-thirds more likely to be at risk for a developmental delay (Hickson et al., 2013). They are also much more likely to have iron-deficiency anemia, which is caused by a low number of red blood cells in their body. Anemia can lead to developmental issues such as decreased motor skills, impaired memory, and decreased social skills. Stress, as mentioned previously, is more prevalent in children living in food insecure households, which can impact brain development and affect memory (Hickson et al., 2013).

Resources

There are federal programs that help to reduce the number of people experiencing food insecurity, especially families, mothers, and children. Many of these provide financial assistance to households based on certain income requirements, but they can vary by state. The image to the right shows the distribution of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which shows why each state has different needs and therefore is allowed to set their own requirements. Some programs provide grants to states which can then use the money to hand out supplement food monthly (USDA, 2021). This could contribute to the “feast-famine” cycle discussed above because children have an abundance of food at the beginning of the month, but supplies run short as it gets to the third and fourth weeks (Kral et al., 2017).

• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
  • Formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, SNAP is a service for low-income households that provides financial assistance for families based on income. Around 44% of Americans that participated in SNAP in 2019 were children (USDA, 2021).
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
  • WIC gives financial assistance, nutrition counseling, and healthcare referrals to mothers and pregnant women in order to lower premature and infant deaths (Ashbrook, 2020).
• National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
  • NSLP provides free meals, reduced price meals, and full price meals based on household income. While the different levels of payment are offered, over 73% of the 30.5 million students enrolled in the program received free lunch (Ralston et al., 2017).
• School Breakfast Program (SBP)
  • SBP serves breakfast at a free or reduced price but only 14 million students participate in the program, compared to NSLP (Ralston et al., 2017).
• Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)
  • SFSP provides reimbursements for summer programs that serve children and teens in low-income areas to make sure they are receiving enough food while school is out for the summer.
• Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
  • CACFP services include reimbursements for daycare, afterschool care, and emergency shelters that offer healthy meals or snacks for children.

References

Ashbrook, A. (2020, August 14). The steps guide to food security: Awareness, resources, support. Public Service Degrees. https://www.publicservicedegrees.org/public-assistance/food-security-hunger-help/

Hickson, M., Ettidger, S., Weiss, I., Donofrio, G., & Cook, J. (2013). Too hungry to learn: Food insecurity and school readiness. Children’s HealthWatch Research. https://www.childrenshealthwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/toohungrytolearn_report.pdf

Kral, T., Chittams, J., & Moore, R. H. (2017). Relationship between food insecurity, child weight status, and parent-reported child eating and snacking behaviors. Journal For Specialists In Pediatric Nursing: JSPN, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/jspn.12177

Oyama, S., Tautolo, E.-S., Tukuitonga, C., & Rush, E. C. (2021). Pacific islands families study: Adverse impact of food insecurity on child body composition. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 134(1543), 30-38.

Ralston, K., Treen, K., Coleman-Jensen, A., & Guthrie, J. (2017). Children’s food security and USDA child nutrition programs.United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/84003/eib-174.pdf

United States Department of Agriculture. (2021, November 8). Food security and nutrition assistance. USDA ERS – Food Security and Nutrition Assistance. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/

West, C. E., Darling, K. E., Ruzicka, E. B., & Sato, A. F. (2021, October 1). Household income and loss of control eating in adolescence: Examining the role of food insecurity. Appetite, 165, 105291. https://doi-org.libproxy.clemson.edu/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105291