The long-term effects of a childhood in hunger

Esther J. Cepeda is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. Her email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter, @estherjcepeda.

CHICAGO -- In a country where the biggest headlines about food are about the prickly issues of overconsumption and weight loss, prolonged hunger is difficult for most people to relate to.

And yet, just as studies have shown how poverty affects brain development and hinders children even before they start school, so are researchers uncovering the very long-term effects of food insufficiency on children.

First, some harsh facts.

The nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, recently released its latest report on food insecurity in counties and congressional districts. Food insecurity is defined by the Agriculture Department as the measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.

According to Feeding America’s analysis, children are at greater risk of hunger than the general population. The highest rate of child food insecurity is 42 percent in Apache County, Arizona, which is home to parts of the Navajo Nation, Zuni and Fort Apache reservations. The lowest rate among children (8 percent) is in Billings and Stark counties, North Dakota, and the average food-insecurity rate for children at the county level is nearly 24 percent.

Many of these children live in households with incomes just high enough to prevent them from qualifying for federal nutrition assistance.

Therefore, hunger lives in places we wouldn’t normally expect to see it. For instance, Virginia’s affluent 10th Congressional District boasts a rate of child food insecurity that is lower than any other district in the country. Yet even there, nearly 11 percent of children (nearly 24,000) live in households that struggle with food insufficiency.

The Agriculture Department estimates that 15 million kids are going hungry across the country. That this is the case in socioeconomically diverse communities is bad enough—these kids’ growth is in peril, as is their short- and long-term health (surely at a societal cost that rivals expanding government-funded food assistance).

Now factor in the lifelong damage that hunger can do to young minds.

Researchers at St. Louis University and the University of Texas (at Austin and at Dallas) sought to learn about the strength of the link between childhood hunger and developmental problems such as lack of impulse control and involvement in interpersonal violence.

In a study recently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the authors supported this link through an analysis of data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

They found that even after controlling for a variety of socio-demographic, parental and psychiatric factors, individuals who reported having frequently gone hungry during childhood were significantly more likely to report having started a lot of fights, injured someone in a violent altercation, used a weapon in a fight or physically hurt another person on purpose.

The researchers found that the links between childhood hunger and interpersonal violence in adulthood were “significantly more robust” among men than among women. Interestingly, the correlation was especially strongly observed for non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics, but not with African-American respondents.

And this reaffirms previous research suggesting that the impact of hunger on neurocortical development and function may partially explain the link between hunger and interpersonal violence.

Bottom line: Hungry kids need help. Sweeping federal policy changes that might, someday, address the children whose families make too much money to qualify for food assistance are a no-brainer. Investing in feeding hungry kids might help reduce the number of violent adults.

But that’s a long-term hope.

Happily, this is one of the few “big issues” in life that individuals can have a profound impact on immediately—by giving money, donating food or volunteering time to your local food bank or pantry.

As if it weren’t enough that it’s neighborly, food banks make it fun. These days, they run 5K races, food-tasting events, golf outings, classic car meets and high teas.

It’s really very easy to do anything from donating the extras in your kitchen cupboard to texting a small contribution. Every little bit helps, and there’s really no more important time to do so.

In about a month, millions of school-age children will be leaving the security of their schools—and school-provided breakfasts and lunches—for homes that don’t have enough food in them.

Take this opportunity to make a lifelong impact on all the hungry kids out there.