Childhood Food Insecurity. 

What does this mean? Childhood food insecurity is the percentage of children under eighteen years old living in households that experience limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods at some point during the year.

Food-Insecure Families Food insecurity—the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food— exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.

Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents (35.1% of female-headed households with children are food-insecure) and among Black and Hispanic households.

Food insecurity is most common in large cities but still exists in rural areas, suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities

25 % of households with children living in large cities are food-insecure.

The typical (median) food-secure household spent 27 percent more for food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and composition.

59% of food-insecure households reported that in the previous month they had participated in one or more of the three largest federal food and nutrition assistance programs: SNAP (formerly food stamps), School Lunch and WIC.