Feeding children

When I was a little girl, I was told to eat everything on my plate, children were starving in China. My two reactions were:

1. How does my eating something I don't like (which at the time was almost everything except cucumbers) help those children?

2. Send them my breakfast, lunch and dinner, except the cucumbers.

My brother who was some years younger was told children were starving in Korea.

My daughter could have heard "eat everything on your plate, children are starving in Ethiopia" (she only wanted peanut butter and baloney sandwiches...I still grimace at the thought)  but I vowed never to use the "...children are starving in..." with any young person whom I was feeding.

Instead we listened to "We are the World," and "Do they know it's Christmas" and made donations to Oxfam and other relief agencies. And I encouraged her to make her own peanut butter and baloney sandwiches and at least try all the other food I put on the table.

But now, with the 16.7 million food insecure kids in the US do the Chinese say to their child who is staring at a plate and not eating, "Eat up, children are starving in the USA."?????? Please read the article below on the state of children's hunger in the US. If you don't read the whole thing, here are some stats.

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/child-hunger-facts.aspx

Food Insecurity

• 16.7 million children lived in food insecure households in 2011.[i]
• 20% or more of the child population in 36 states and D.C. lived in food insecure households in 2010.  The District of Columbia (30.7%) and Oregon (29.0%) had the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food.[ii]
• In 2010, the top five states with the highest rate of food insecure children under 18 are the District of Columbia, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, & Florida.[iii]
• In 2010, the top five states with the lowest rate of food insecure children under 18 are North Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia, Minnesota, & Massachusetts. [iv]

Emergency Food Assistance

• Nearly 14 million children are estimated to be served by Feeding America, over 3 million of which are ages 5 and under.[v]
• Proper nutrition is vital to the growth and development of children.  62 percent of client households with children under the age of 18 reported participating in the National School Lunch Program, but only 14 percent reported having a child participate in a summer feeding program that provides free food when school is out. [vi]
• 54 percent of client households with children under the age of 3 participated in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).[vii]
• 32 percent of pantries, 42 percent of kitchens, and 18 percent of shelters in the Feeding America network reported "many more children in the summer" being served by their programs.[viii]

Poverty

• In 2011, 16.1 million or approximately 22 percent of children in the U.S. lived in poverty. [ix]

Participation in Federal Nutrition Programs

• In fiscal year 2010, 47 percent of all SNAP participants were children[x]
• During the 2011 federal fiscal year, more than 31 million low-income children received free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program.[xi]  Unfortunately, just 2.3 million children participated in the Summer Food Service Program that same year.[xii]

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