Research Program on Childhood Hunger Mission

Food security is fundamental to health and well-being.  For children, even a modest compromise may impair physical, intellectual and social development, thus food insecurity is considered a serious problem facing children in the U.S. In 2009, 14.7% of all households, containing 50.2 million people experienced food insecurity. Over a third, or 17.2 million people were children. Of those, 12.2 million adults and 5.4 million children lived in households with very low food security.

The problem of food insecurity has increased since 2004. The number of U.S. households that experienced food insecurity increased over five percentage points from 2007 to 2008 for example, going from 13.0 million in 2007 to 17.1 million households in 2008 though that number stabilized at 17.4 million households in 2009. That children in the U.S. are going without sufficient amounts of food is of concern in its own right. Previous research, spanning numerous empirical studies, has found that children in families suffering from food insecurity are more likely to suffer from a wide array of negative health, nutrition, and educational outcomes.

In May 2011 the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, with funding from the Food and Nutrition Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, competitively awarded a first round of grants in the amount of $2.45 million to qualified individuals and institutions to provide rigorous research that expands our understanding of hunger among children in the United States and the attendant policy implications. Grant recipients and their research topics can be reviewed here.

A second round grant competition was initiated November 1, 2011 with letters of intent due December 15, 2011 and full proposals due February 3, 2012. Full details of application requirements are available at http://www.ukcpr.org/Task_Order_II_Childhood_Hunger_RFP.pdf.