The latest issue of the Journal of Applied Research on Children (JARC), a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the CHILDREN AT RISK Institute, was released last month. This issue, the fourth in the journal’s history, is focused on the effects of food insecurity on America’s children. With contributions and commentary from dozens of respected national experts, this issue of JARC opens a window onto the problem of hunger in America…an issue that is all too often dismissed as irrelevant in our relatively wealthy and modern nation.

However, as highlighted in an article by Rafael Perez-Escamilla and Rodrigo Pinheiro de Toledo Vianna (2012), millions of American children are going to bed hungry each night. According to the US Household Food Security Survey Model, during the course of 2010, 14.5% of American households faced food insecurity at some point. This adds up to over 17 million hungry households per year – 3.9 million of which include children. It is estimated that 1 in 5 American children are at risk of hunger, and this alarming ratio drops to 1 in 3 for black and Latino children. Key risk factors for food insecurity include: living near or below the federal poverty line; belonging to a household that contains children and is headed by a single adult; or being black or Hispanic.

Children who are hungry and don’t know where their next meal is coming from are likely to face many adverse consequences, ranging from poor performance in school to deteriorating health. That’s why CHILDREN AT RISK works on a range of food insecurity-related issues, including a push to encourage schools to provide universal free school breakfast for students who may not be receiving three square meals a day at home.

For more on the devastating impacts of food insecurity, please visit the most recent issue of the Journal of Applied Research on Children