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13 million children live in households that do
not have an adequate supply of food. (1)These
hungry children suffer from chronic undernutrition,
the deficiency of essential nutrients and food
energy. These nutritional deficiencies can lead
to serious health problems such as; impaired cognitive
development (2), growth failure,
poorer overall health, more ear infections, diabetes,
physical weakness, anemia, and frequent hospitalization.
In short, going hungry makes kids sick. (5)
Hungry children, even those who experience only mild
malnutrition during the critical stages of their development, may suffer irreparable
harm. These children have also shown poor performance in school, shorter attention
spans, poor test taking skills, and are less likely to become productive citizens.
- 40% of all emergency shelter
food recipients are children (3)
- 1 in 4 people standing in
line at a soup kitchen is a child (3)
- Between 2000 and 2001, requests
for emergency food assistance increased by
an average of 23% in American cities, with
54% of requests coming from families with children. (3)
- Over 16% of U.S. households
with children were food insecure in 2001. (2)
- In 2002, 16 million children
received a free or reduced lunch (4)
In Westchester 36% of those who are hungry are children.
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