In 2008, more than 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, this is a 26% increase from 2007 and is the highest number in U.S. History. Poverty deprives a child of many of the most basic necessities in life and affects a child’s social, emotional and psychological well-being. For children growing up in poverty, eating breakfast may not be a financial possibility. The prevalence of food insecurity and obesity among poor children demonstrates the urgent and unmet need for providing a healthy breakfast to all children to improve health and cognitive outcomes along with better access to supermarkets in lower-income neighborhoods.
We are pleased to announce that over the next two years, with the generous support of the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, CHILDREN AT RISK will work to expand its Food In Schools Initiative. Through this initiative CHILDREN AT RISK will continue working towards increasing the number of schools participating in universal free school breakfast and to increase community usage and participation. CHILDREN AT RISK will outreach to school and district officials, policy-makers at the state and local levels, to significantly increase participation in the School Breakfast Program. Through research, education and outreach, our goal is to increase school participation in universal free school breakfast by 20% by the 2012-2013 school year. This increase would impact 50,000 students in the Greater Houston area. The collaboration between CHILDREN AT RISK and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System will ensure that thousands more low-income children eat a healthy breakfast each morning.
In addition, Children at Risk will be partnering with The Food Trust in 2011 to address the significant need for supermarkets and fresh food resources in many of our Houston neighborhoods. The public sector has a responsibility to help provide nutritious food supply in underserved communities in order to safeguard public health and promote economic development. It is our hope that through this partnership we will be able to expand the number of supermarkets and access to fresh, healthy and nutritious food in low-income neighborhoods. Texas has the lowest number of supermarkets per capita of any state in the nation.
Stay tuned for more exciting news to come from our partnerships with Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and The Food Trust!