This is a disturbing report, and I sense, a trend in the rest of our country:
SAN FRANCISCO -- One in four California households with children reported food hardship, according to a new analysis of Gallup data released last Thursday by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).
Children’s healthcare advocates worry about the consequences of a lack of access to nutritious food. “It’s disturbing, but not surprising,” said Kelly Hardy, director of health policy at Children Now.
The report analyzed data gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project’s responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”
In addition, apparently California is very poor at signing its residents up for food benefits:
California had the second highest number of metropolitan areas with rates of food hardship in households with children in 2009-2010, according to the report.
According to Kidsdata.org, a project of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, which tracks the health and well being of children in communities across the nation, 68.6 percent of students in schools in Fresno County and 65.6 percent in Los Angeles County were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals in 2010.
But sadly, “California has one of the worst records of enrolling those eligible in federal food programs,” said Weill – an assertion borne out by a report by the California Food Policy Advocates, which talks about the dismal enrollment in CalFresh, the federal food program in the state. The finger-imaging requirement discourages many from participating in the program, the report says.
In my home state of Louisiana, with Bobby Jindal, one of the kings of privatization and reduction of public services, in control, Louisiana sits at the top of childhood hunger:
In the United States, more than one out of six children lives in a food insecure household, which means they do not always know where they will find their next meal. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 16.7 million children under 18 in the United States live in this condition – unable to consistently access nutritious and adequate amounts of food necessary for a healthy life. Louisiana is ranked among the top ten states with the highest rates of child food insecurity (children under 18) with child hunger rates at or above 20 percent. Louisiana tops the nation with one in four chidren ages 0-5 who are are at risk for hunger.
There is no more shameful statistic for our nation, than the rate of childhood hunger. The Wall Street criminals, such as Goldman Sachs, that are in control of our nation should, as punishment for bringing the economy down, be made to work in food banks and kitchens to serve our hungry children as community service.