Hunger Caused By More Than Poverty

New research suggests mental and physical health has a significant impact on hunger

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By Meghan Walsh

OZY

Nothing tugs at our collective heartstrings more than hungry kids. Rightfully so. It’s hard enough to stay afloat when you’re full-size, but little people are at a gross disadvantage when it comes to the maddeningly not-basic basics of food and housing. But it may be time to stop blaming the crushing social woe of poverty for causing the crushing social woe of hungry American kids — a whopping 1 in 5. New research shows:

The biggest threat to full bellies is unstable mental and physical health.

Lenna Nepomnyaschy, a professor at Rutgers University School of Social Work and author of a number of recent studies on this topic, says that financial resources, like family income and assets, tell “the simple story.” The more complicated story is instability. Why? When a family is on edge, it doesn’t take much to go over. A parent might be able to pay all the bills when they’re at 100 percent, but any turbulence can send them in a downward spiral. Thus, the factors of mental and physical health are critical. Managing a strict budget is complex and exhausting, so parents who are distracted or sad or sick just don’t have the capacity.

You won’t be surprised that kids of single moms are more than twice as likely to be food-insecure than those of married couples. But even if the two biological (but unmarried) parents are cohabiting or a parent is remarried or a relative is living in the house, there is still a higher chance the kids will go hungry. It seems to defy logic, but new relationships, additional family members and moving households all make everyday life messy. It’s this kind of complication, says Nepomnyaschy, that ups the chance of having hungry kids. This is sobering news, as the traditional structure of the American family fades and the mixed model takes its place.

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