Feeding America's Low-Income Children

No. B-65 in Series, "New Federalism: National Survey of America's Families"

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The federal government offers a wide array of nutrition assistance programs to help low-income families with children meet their food needs. Nonetheless, official statistics indicate that nearly one in five children in the United States lived in a food-insecure household in 2002 (Nord, Andrews, and Carlson 2003). The rate of food insecurity among poor and near-poor families (income below 130 percent of the poverty level) is more than double that for all children, and more than one in ten near-poor children live in families that experience hunger during the year.

The private sector has initiated a movement to end hunger by 2015 in response to the lingering, high rates of food insecurity and hunger among low-income families. The Blueprint to End Hunger (National Anti-Hunger Organizations 2004) calls for a strengthening of the nation's nutrition safety net programs, including increasing program access and participation among low-income families.

This brief examines the potential for existing programs to cast a broader and tighter safety net and improve food security among children. It begins with an overview of the nutrition safety net, focusing on the largest federal programs (food stamps; School Lunch and Breakfast; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC) and private food assistance programs. The brief presents data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families to show how many low-income children actually receive benefits from current programs. The concluding section discusses the implications of current participation patterns for efforts to end hunger among children.

The results show that the nutrition safety net has considerable room to expand. Only 5 percent of low-income families with children under age 5 receive help from all the available government and private food assistance programs, and 27 percent receive help from two assistance programs. Also, the safety net fails to reach three out of ten low-income young children. Surprisingly, almost one in five poor children receive no nutrition assistance. Use of the nutrition safety net also varies significantly by work status of the parents and across the states.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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