Student Submission – Food Insecurity: A Forgotten Danger for US Children’s Health and Education

This paper is the first post in a new biannual  series comprised of undergraduate student submissions. 

We received student submissions from Dr. Tiffany Linton Page’s sociology of race and ethnicity class at UC Berkeley. Each submission brought a unique perspective to hunger. As a result, Food First will open a special program featuring undergraduate student submissions, published biannually in September and March of each year. We are interested in publishing student pieces written in English or Spanish that rigorously investigate and research the facts of hunger and its underlying mechanisms, and especially those that provide original thought and new insight into hunger and the injustices which cause it. We encourage students to include their own experiences and identities in their writing. To submit for our upcoming March 2017 series, please email your .doc to Food First Publications and Communications Coordinator Ahna Kruzic at akruzic(at)foodfirst.org by December 31st, 2016. 

48.1 million people in the United States (including 15.3 million children) experience food insecurity¹ – which is nearly three times the total population of my home country, Burkina Faso. The United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecure households as those that have reported “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet,” and those that have reported “multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake”.²

While I have no doubt that food insecurity in the US is not limited to one race, we cannot deny that some populations are more affected than others. The higher prevalence of food insecurity in Black and Hispanic communities is not without consequence. I am neither a Black American nor Hispanic. But as a foreign Black African devoted to population health and education, I hypothesized what my research ultimately confirmed: food insecurity is one of the root causes of poor health among Hispanic and/or Black Americans, and thus is correlated with achievement gaps between white children and children who are Hispanic or Black.

Race and Food Insecurity

Food insecurity affects 14% of households in the United States. While this number goes down to 11% for white households, it goes up to 22% in Hispanic households, and even higher at 26% of Black American households.³ Given these high rates of food insecurity within Hispanic and Black American families, it is no surprise that the rates food insecurity among children in these communities are proportionally high. Indeed, 34% of Black American children and 29% of Hispanic children are food insecure, in contrast to the 15% of white children who are food insecure. The extent of food insecurity is not without consequence – and potential impacts include health, educational achievement, and more.

Food Insecurity and Achievement Gap

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) defines the achievement gap as one population group performing significantly higher than the other.⁴ In order to measure the achievement gap, the NAEP runs assessments in mathematics and reading for 4th graders and 8th graders in all 50 states and compares the results. From 2007 to 2009, the Association found that the gap between white 4th graders and Hispanic 4th graders was 21 points, while for the same groups of eighth graders, the gap grew to 26 points over the same period.⁵ In the reading assessment, the achievement gap between white and Hispanic 4th and 8th graders was respectively 25 points and 24 points in 2009.⁶

Numerous studies over the years have shown over and again an achievement gap between white and Black American students and between white and Hispanic students. Even though the width of the gap varies, the results always show a clear distinction between the academic performance of white students in comparison to their Black and Hispanic counterparts.

Similarly to White students and Hispanic student assessment tests, NAEP found that White students “had higher scores than Black students, on average, on all assessments”.⁷ The gap between white students and Black students was 26 in mathematics and 21 in reading in grade 8.⁸ These disproportionalities cannot be due intellectual differences. As the organization recognizes, there are other factors justifying the existing achievement gap between whites and Blacks and whites and Hispanics.⁹ Far from being due to some biological or cultural predisposition, the achievement gap is arguably rooted in food insecurity, among other factors.

Food insecurity’s correlation with the performance of students differs depending on the level of food insecurity. Indeed, food insecurity can vary “from temporary interruptions [low food security] in usual diet to chronic nutritional deprivation [very low food security]”.¹⁰ Katrhine Alaimo and her colleagues analyzed data from the Third Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHENS III) to investigate the relationship between food insufficiency (a lower level of food insecurity where the concerned individual only has temporary interruptions of food intake) and the academic performance of children and teenagers.¹¹ Food insufficiency was determined to influence the performance of students whether or not the family of the concerned child often or sometimes lacked food. They found that “6- 11- year-old food-insufficient children had significantly lower arithmetic scores and were more likely to have repeated a grade”.¹² Lower performance rates are entirely understandable if we try to be in the shoes of the children confronted with food insecurity. Personally, I cannot imagine what my academic life would like if I had to study while hungry, even at my age. For children, who are much younger than I am, it could only be worse. An African proverb says that somebody with an empty stomach has no ears; in other words, without food, we lose as much as our senses. What then is our capacity to learn and internalize new materials?

More evidence of the negative impact of food insecurity on children is presented by Godwin Ashiabi, who conducted a study of nearly 12,000 children aged 6-11 to find out the impact of food insecurity on school engagement. The results of the study showed that “food insecurity [had] a negative effect on school engagement, revealing that children who were food insecure were more likely to exhibit lower levels of school engagement”.¹³ These results show that food insecurity and academic performance are not mutually exclusive, but rather that the first is a factor that can influence the second.

From Food Insecurity to Obesity

One health condition linked to food insecurity is obesity, which is correlated to leading causes of preventable death such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer.¹⁴

Growing up, the only image society gave me of obesity was that it was the result of greediness. So, for me and many children in Burkina Faso and beyond, it is assumed that one can not be obese without being a big eater. But to be a big eater, one needs big quantities of food. Therefore, I was convinced that obesity happened only to rich people, given that they were the ones who could afford to eat more than necessary. Therefore, I had assumed that low-income families in the United States could not be obese because they have no surplus of resources, especially food. Today, this way of thinking is still very prominent in my country, but also in the United States. This explains why the correlation between food insecurity and obesity might be hard to grasp – food insecurity is commonly defined as a lack of food, and meanwhile, obesity is linked with eating too much.¹⁵

Yet, a lot of studies prove the correlation between food insecurity and obesity, especially in children. Indeed, the National Health and Examination survey found that “obesity was significantly associated with personal food insecurity for children aged 6 to 11”.¹⁶

I have never had to worry about what I will eat next, though I am from a modest family. In the United States most people of my age have never had to do that neither; maybe that is why the minority who have are so often forgotten. In food insecure households, the next meal is a worry. For them, the question most of the time shifts from the content of the next meal to wondering if there will be a next meal in the first place. As they cope with the situation at hand, they tend to prioritize food quantity over food quality so that to prevent their family members, mostly children, from experiencing consistent hunger.¹⁷ Therefore, they oftentimes opt for cheaper options, leading children to have “higher intake of fats, saturated fats, sweets and fried snacks”.¹⁸ Yet, those foods “have been shown to promote weight gain, and have been found to be more prevalent in low-income neighborhoods compared to healthier food options”.¹⁹

The type of food available to these food insecure households and the children living there, as well as the pattern of these meals and the frequency itself of the meals are very different from white households in similar conditions. For example, Black American and Hispanic households undergoing food insecurity spend much less on healthy options like fruits. In a study, Melissa Masters found that while white households had the highest rates of fruit available and had more family meals, minority, especially Black households had the lowest rate of fruits available and engage the least in family meals or meals cooked in the house; this is significant because family meals are linked with better dietary intake.²⁰

It is no surprise then that in these communities, many children and adolescents fail to meet their dietary needs, which “can lead to short-term and long-term health consequences for youth and may increase risk of developing obesity”.²¹ It can also “result in negative effects on children’s growth and development”.²² It becomes clear then that in the United States, children who experience food insecurity – many of whom are Black or Hispanic, are more at risk of obesity. Indeed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black Americans and Hispanics have the highest rates of obesity in the country, with respectively 47.8% and 42.5 %, while the obesity rate among whites is 32.6%.²³

Food insecurity has a negative impact on the health and academic achievement of children from populations such as Black Americans and Hispanics. This situation is persistent enough for actions to be taken against food insecurity within these communities, as the consequences reach far beyond the nutritional aspect of food insecurity. One only needs to look around to realize that stopping food insecurity for the Black and Hispanic populations is a necessary step to allow for academic, emotional, and physical development of a significant portion of the American population.

Endnotes

1. Jensen, Alisha Coleman, Mathieu Rabbit, and Christian Gregory. “Household Food Security in the United States in 2014.” USDA ERS. USDA, Sept. 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
2. Jensen, Alisha Coleman, Mathiew Rabbit, and Christian Gregory. “Definitions of Food Security.” USDA ERS. USDA, Sept. 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
3. Jensen, Alisha Coleman, Mathieu Rabbit, and Christian Gregory. “Household Food Security in the United States in 2014.” USDA ERS. USDA, Sept. 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
4. “NAEP – Achievement Gaps.” National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences, 2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. “Table 4A Crimes In the United States, Arrests by Race 2012.” FBI. FBI, 07 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
10. Alaimo, Kathrine, and Christine Olston. “Food Insufficiency and American School-Aged Children’s Cognitive, Academic, and Psychosocial Development.” Pediatrics Publications. AAP Gateway, 2001. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Gowin, Ashiabi. “Household Food Insecurity and Children’s School Engagement.” Taylor & Francis. N.p., 2005. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
14. Kaur, Jabsir, and Molly Lamb. “The Association between Food Insecurity and Obesity in Children—The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” ANDJRN. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
15. Young, Angela Odoms. “Understanding the Food-insecurity and Obesity Paradox.” Feeding America. Feeding America, 12 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
16. Kaur, Jabsir, and Molly Lamb. “The Association between Food Insecurity and Obesity in Children—The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” ANDJRN. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
17. Cook, John, and Deborah Frank. “Food Security, Poverty, and Human Development in the United States.” Online Library. Wiley Online Library, 25 July 2008. Web. 3 Apr. 2016.
18. Rosas, Lisa. “Dietary Associations of Household Food Insecurity among Children of Mexican Descent: Results of a Binational Study.” Science Direct. Science Direct, Dec. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
19. Young, Angela Odoms. “Understanding the Food-insecurity and Obesity Paradox.” Feeding America. Feeding America, 12 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
20. Greder, Kimberly, and Anne Byrne. “A Grounded Theory to Understand How Low-Income Families Meet Their Food and Nutrition Needs.” ProQuest. ProQuest, Apr. 2001. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
21. Ibid.
22. “NAEP – Achievement Gaps.” National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences, 2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.
23. “Adult Obesity Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.