Equal Opportunity for Children Must Include Good Nutrition

By Helen Harrison, Coordinator for Target:Hunger North Berkshire
January, 2007

All of us want children from all backgrounds to have the same chances for growth, play, learning, and achievement. We know that the quality and variety of foods children eat lay the foundation for robust child development. But what if a family cannot afford to give its children the kind of nutrition they need for healthy physical and intellectual development?

Food insecurity – uncertain access to a nutritionally adequate and safe diet – affects 11% of households nationally. In the seven towns of northern Berkshire County (Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, North Adams, Savoy, and Williamstown), 18% of households are food-insecure.

Most parents in food-insecure households are able to protect their children from actually going without food – often by skipping meals themselves. But even though children may be getting enough calories, the quality of their diet may be compromised. When money is tight, fruits and vegetables frequently are the first items crossed off the shopping list. Low-income families are twice as likely not to eat fruits and vegetables as higher-income families, and research suggests this is largely due to cost. As the price of fruits and vegetables goes up in a community, consumption among children goes down.

As consumption of fruits and vegetables declines, rates of childhood obesity go up. It seems like a paradox, but the same children who may look overfed may be malnourished when it comes to consuming the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and healthy fats they need for proper development – including brain development. At the same time, they may be eating too much of the wrong things – like simple carbohydrates and trans fats. Products with these ingredients tend to be cheap and easy to find in any corner store.

Lack of adequate transportation and lack of a nearby supermarket are barriers to good nutrition for many families. “Food deserts” – areas without full-service supermarkets – are most common in neighborhoods with large numbers of single mothers with children. The simple presence or absence of a nearby supermarket has been shown to have a measurable impact on health and mortality.

What all of this means is that lower-income children are often disadvantaged from birth not only in terms of education and material resources, but in access to the very building blocks necessary for healthy bodies and brains. Eighteen percent of low-income infants and toddlers require medical treatment for iron deficiency anemia. Lack of adequate calcium and iron makes children more vulnerable to lead poisoning. Food-insecure children suffer greater rates of cognitive impairment, lowered immune response, and obesity. And research has demonstrated that food insecurity, independent of other factors, hinders children’s academic and social development.

Fortunately, there are ways to improve children’s nutrition without having to wait until we’ve solved the larger puzzles of inadequate wages and unemployment. Federally funded programs such as Food Stamps, WIC (Women, Infants and Children), school breakfast and lunch, and summer meal programs demonstrably improve children’s nutritional intake, help families make better food choices, and even improve children’s body mass index (BMI).

The impact of these programs can be augmented by Farm-to-School and Farm-to-Summer programs, through which school food service and summer programs buy their produce from local farmers. This fresh produce makes school meals more nutritious and better tasting. This ends up benefiting potentially food-insecure children the most, since they are more likely to participate in school and summer meals.

Bringing “locally grown” even closer to home, involvement in school and community gardens has been shown to increase children’s vitamin and mineral intake. Kids are more likely to eat produce they have grown themselves. Nutrition education and cooking classes help kids establish lifelong healthy habits and skills. When offered as part of a curriculum centered on gardening or Farm-to-School programs, kids build healthy bodies while learning about ecology and local food systems.

Target:Hunger North Berkshire is a community-based project dedicated to reducing hunger by improving food security through strategies like these. More than two dozen organizations in northern Berkshire County, coordinated by The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts with support from the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, are working toward our shared goal of reducing hunger by 10% in four years while creating a replicable model for change.

For more information, including sources for the research referenced in this article, contact Helen Harrison at helenh@foodbankwma.org or 1-413-247-9738 x108.