Feeding Opportunity: Ending child hunger
The brief, produced by the Center for American Progress, suggests measures to reform federal child nutrition programs with the ultimate aim of ending child hunger by 2015. In 2008, 16.6 million American children lived in homes that could not afford enough food for their families.
The report reveala that poverty and hunger are interrelated. President Barack Obama and the Department of Agriculture have set a deadline to end childhood hunger by 2015. Food insufficiency costs the United States approximately $28 billion per year because malnourished children perform poorer in school and require more health care spending, according to the report.
In order to end child hunger by 2015, the paper advises Congress to budget an additional $4 billion each year for federal child nutrition programs and a child nutrition bill. The authors further argue that schools with the highest concentrations of poverty in the country should offer free, universal breakfast to students. Also, summer meal, after-school meal and other meal programs should be expanded, according to the paper.
