Skip to main content

Nutrition

Use the key issues below as a guide to find related data, research or other resources in your work:

  • Key Issue 1: Families with infants and toddlers, as well as pregnant people, need access to nutrition support programs during the critical years of brain and body development.
  • Key Issue 2: Access to healthy foods is associated with lower incidences of low-birth-weight babies and infant mortality, as well as with positive developmental and educational outcomes for children.
  • Key Issue 3: To achieve a hunger-free America, we must address the root causes of nutritional insecurity and structural and systemic inequities.

Materials from the following partners were used in the development of the guiding message points in this chapter:

Key Issue 1: Access to nutrition support programs

Key Issue 1: Families with infants and toddlers, as well as pregnant people, need access to nutrition support programs during the critical years of brain and body development.

Infants, toddlers and pregnant people need access to affordable, nutritious food to ensure proper health and development. Unfortunately, food insecurity (defined as lacking consistent access to nutritious food due to insufficient finances or other scarce resources) is far too common among parents and young children. Nutrition support programs reduce food and nutrition insecurity by helping families living with low incomes afford healthy foods and providing information about nutrition.

Good nutrition improves babies’ and toddlers’ ability to grow and develop, along with achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Eating nutritious foods provides pregnant people and children the nutrients they need to stay healthy, active and strong. A lack of access to healthy foods is especially harmful prenatally and in early development when children have rapid growth. Studies have shown that inadequate nutrition, even mildly below target nutritional goals, stunts growth and development. Infants and toddlers from food-insecure families are 90% more likely to be in fair or poor health and 30% more likely to be hospitalized than those in food-secure households.

Research also shows clear links between inadequate food and low birth weights, anemia, mental health problems and poor educational outcomes. Nutrition assistance programs effectively reduce child hunger by helping people purchase healthy food they would not otherwise be able to afford, thereby increasing healthy eating. In doing so, nutrition assistance programs have significant positive effects on health outcomes more broadly.

Key Issue 2: Access to healthy foods

Key Issue 2: Access to healthy foods is associated with lower incidences of low-birth-weight babies and infant mortality, as well as positive developmental and educational outcomes for children.

Access to these basic and vital services helps children grow and develop, and it helps their families stay healthy too. Maintaining the current funding and preventing reductions in benefits is important for infants, toddlers and their families so they have access to nutrition support in times of need. Benefits are historically off-pace with inflation and rising food costs. Expanding food assistance programs and increasing benefits helps ease the burden for struggling families. 

To make sure that all children have a path that allows them to grow, develop and succeed, we need continued, sustainable funding and policies for nutrition assistance programs that meet the needs and circumstances of families with infants and toddlers. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps buffer families from the effects of economic downturns; it reduces food insecurity as well as giving families and individuals greater opportunity to purchase healthy food. Children under 5 with access to SNAP had later-in-life increases in personal and professional growth, economic self-sufficiency and neighborhood quality, as well as an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in the likelihood of incarceration. By providing nutritious foods, breastfeeding support and other services, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has been shown to improve child health in a range of measures, with long-term developmental benefits. 

SNAP remains one of the most effective ways to reach low-income households with resources to address hardship and to provide help when the economy is weak. However, it’s estimated that 1 in 3 people facing hunger are unlikely to qualify for the program. We have a responsibility to make all policies more effective by identifying what supports are missing and where, to build up the access and availability that is so important for families. 

Key Issue 3: Address the root causes of hunger and structural and systemic inequities

Key Issue 3: To achieve a hunger-free America, we must take on the root causes of nutritional insecurity and structural and systemic inequities.

More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021, or 1 in 8 kids. This rate is much higher in Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities because of systemic racial injustice. Families of color consistently experience crisis-level rates of poverty and food insecurity, especially when compared with White families. For example, Black children are almost three times as likely to face hunger than White children. 

Households with children are more likely to experience food insecurity. Nutrition supports provide necessary food and resources to help families on their path out of poverty, but many remain food insecure. In 2020, Latinx and Black individuals were two to three times more likely as White individuals to report that their household didn’t get enough to eat: 19% and 24%, respectively, compared to 8%. Similarly, 19% of adults who identify as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or as multiracial, taken together reported that their household did not get enough to eat. 

Food and nutritional insecurity is a racial equity issue—child food insecurity increases as caregivers’ experiences of discrimination increases. A cycle of deprivation prevents families of color who have been historically discriminated against from building economic success, as seen by wage and wealth gaps and other forms of structural racism such as food deserts. In some communities, policies create barriers to health: Increasing access to fresh and nutritious food in communities where it has long been denied, and expanding programs like SNAP and Medicaid, help families that are experiencing hard times to not fall deeper into poverty. We have the tools to go beyond acknowledging the problem and to begin addressing the root causes of food insecurity impacting certain groups of Americans more than others. 

Structural racism limits options and leads to worse health outcomes. By co-designing policies and programs with those most affected by structural racism, we can prioritize action where it will create the greatest impact and build effective solutions that work for all families.

Data/Proof Points

  • CLASP and ZERO TO THREE’s report on the need for nutrition assistance programs: Access to nutrition support programs is essential for infants, toddlers and pregnant people to receive nutritious food. CLASP and ZERO TO THREE’s report on how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has been shown to improve child health, with long-term developmental benefits.
    • How to use + resources to boost your message: ZERO TO THREE has a resource guide for parents and caregivers with information on how nutrition affects the developing brain in PN-3. This guide can be used by the Collaborative to raise awareness and advocate for the importance of advancing nutrition assistance for young children.

  • Food Resource and Action Center's report on The Role of the Federal Child Nutrition Programs in Improving Health and Well-Being: In this report, FRAC summarizes the harmful impacts of poverty, food insecurity and poor nutrition on the health and well-being of children. The center outlines the important role of child nutrition programs in improving food and economic security, dietary intake, weight outcomes, health and learning.
    • How to use + resources for to boost your message: The FRAC and Think Babies fact sheet on infant and toddler health in the U.S. is a helpful breakdown of how many young children experience poverty and food insecurity, resulting in poor health, iron deficiency anemia, developmental delays, hospitalizations and being less prepared for school. This resource can act as proof points when creating messages about the need for federal investments in PN-3 nutrition.
  • The USDA Infant Nutrition and Feeding Guide: This research-based guidebook is designed for use by WIC staff who provide nutrition education and counseling to the parents and caregivers of infants. Topics include Nutritional Needs of Infants, Development of Infant Feeding Skills, Breastfeeding, Infant Formula Feeding, Complementary Foods, Special Concerns in Infant Feeding & Development, Physical Activity in Infancy and Food Safety.
    • How to use + resources to boost your message: In addition to the guidebook, the USDA hosts nutritional resources per age group, including Infants and Toddlers, with studies from research universities and organizations on specific issues, such as feeding patterns, diet, health and more.

  • RAPID’s fact sheet on Households With Young Children and Child Care Providers Are Still Facing Hunger: RAPID's fact sheet outlines how caregivers of young children and the child care workforce have increasingly experienced more hunger in recent years. Measures of hunger from the USDA include: not enough food and no money for more, cutting size of or skipping meals, and not enough money to eat balanced meals, among other items.
    • How to use + resources to boost your message: This resource provides valuable data that can be used to craft messaging around what needs to be done to advance child nutrition in America. For example, the data on demographic groups experiencing hunger can inform organizations about who their messaging will resonate with the best. 

Additional references:

Sign in with Email

or Create an account

Created with NationBuilder