Food for Thought: Food Insecurity in Children

An Indian meal can consist of a mix of vegetables cooked in heavy spices like turmeric and cumin; a brown, round tortilla-like bread (roti); plain white rice; and some sort of soup. I was sitting at the dinner table staring at my plate with a full belly. I couldn’t put anything else into my stomach. It was close to its capacity if not already there. The pain was radiating outwards and my brain was telling me to stop. How could I stop? My parents were angry that I was wasting food and they confined me to the table until it was all done. I scooped up another heap of food into my spoon and stared at it while holding it in mid air right in front of my face. “What is taking you so long?” my mom yelled at me from the kitchen sink with a scowl, which I could feel burning into my skin because I had been sitting at the table for 30 minutes after everyone else had gotten up. I rushed and shoved the already full spoon in my face. I did the same with the last 5 bites. I could barely get up. My belly felt like it was about to explode. I helped my mom clean up and we sat around for a bit longer before heading to bed. My stomach still had not emptied and I was beginning to feel nauseous. I did not dare tell my parents. It took me awhile to drift off to sleep, but the moment I did I was immediately dry heaving. Soon a mountain of curdled, soupy, half digested Indian food came flowing out of my mouth like lava. I could feel all the spices burning my throat on the way up. It didn’t stop until all of it was out. I yelled for my mom and she helped me clean it up. This happened quite a number of times before my parents realized my stomach cannot tolerate the amount of food they were having me eat. Subsequently, my mom was known for packing our refrigerator and freezer to the brim. She could feed a whole army at all times. We never threw anything away. 

In India, food is a luxury, not as readily available to everyone. My mom grew up in a house with 6 other siblings, my dad had 2 others. Food was consistently rationed in their houses and some days there just wasn’t enough to go around so the portions were smaller leaving many still hungry. In America, my parents experienced the complete opposite. There was plenty to go around, but both of my parents still acted as if the portions were scarce. They hated wasting any food, thus all the food on our plates needed to be eaten. Even when we went out to eat, a few bites could never remain on our plates. We had to finish everything, always. I even remember myself in college in the dorm cafeteria making myself feel guilty for leaving any food behind, so I’d stuff everything into my mouth even if the same pain as a child radiated through my body when I was full. I still have issues to this day when it comes to overeating because of the nagging guilt that is always on my mind.

What is food insecurity?

For those that grow up with enough food, the idea of food insecurity seems very abstract. 

According to the USDA, food insecurity is when a household has a hard time obtaining enough food for the entire family’s needs, mainly due to insufficient money and/or resources. It is divided into 2 groups: low food security and very low food security.

Low food security: “These food-insecure households obtained enough food to avoid substantially disrupting their eating patterns or reducing food intake by using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting food from community food pantries”

Very low food security: “In these food-insecure households, normal eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake was reduced at times during the year because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”

Holocaust survivors

In my research of this topic I specifically remembered my Jewish friends who had family that survived the Holocaust. Their grandparents had very strong opinions and practices during meal time: wasting of food was not acceptable; any weight loss was not acceptable; playing with your food was not acceptable. The Holocaust was a daunting time of our history where approximately 6 million Jewish people died. Many were sent to ghettos, concentration camps, and labor camps where ration cards were given to help distribute food. “The first 18 months in the Warsaw ghetto, 15-18% died from starvation.” Meals were meager and rarely contained nutrients since most were watered down in order to feed and control the masses. 

In southern Florida a study about attitudes towards food was conducted with 25 Holocaust survivors, which is a relatively small sample size and is considered a descriptive qualitative study (in person interview), but still informative. The study found that generally these survivors struggled with the following: “(1) difficulty throwing food away, even when spoiled; (2) storing excess food; (3) craving certain food(s); (4) difficulty standing in line for food; and (5) experiencing anxiety when food is not readily available.” 

COVID and Food Insecurity

This pandemic has taken many lives, but even more are suffering from the side effects. Food insecurity is at its highest levels and some are even saying it is matching the numbers during the Great Depression. This year 1 in 4 families have experienced food insecurities. Hospitals are already dealing with high numbers of COVID cases. Food insecure adults are 50% more likely to enter the emergency rooms and stay 50% longer than food-secure adults. This leaves many children in the hands of parents and guardians that are overly stressed and malnourished or even absent due to their food insecurity. The first stimulus bill helped alleviate the problem temporarily, but as that money runs out most families will be back to square one. Closed to 50 million families already rely on some sort of governmental assistance food programs and even more now will need help. With the closure of schools, many children do not have access to the lunch programs that they heavily rely on. The available assistance will not be enough during these tough pandemic months, which consequently has been pushing families to use non-profit food banks and other charities. These organizations are overwhelmed and are unsure how they will be able to keep up with demand. This will leave many families suffering from major food insecurity, which can be passed down to the children in the families.

Food for thought

Some of my friends that have worked as teachers have mentioned story after story of students not having enough to eat. They wonder how do these children pay attention in school with a nagging, empty (or partially empty) stomach. Some of these teachers are generous enough to make sure to bring extra food for their students. 

During 2019, 1 in 10 U.S. households were food insecure during this year. According to the USDA, “households with children had a substantially higher rate of food insecurity (13.6 percent) than those without children (9.3 percent).” Black families (19.1%) are twice as likely to experience food insecurity than white families (7.9%). Food insecurities can cause a host of health issues in children, which increases their chances of being hospitalized, risk of poor school readiness, and poor school performance.

Consequences of food insecurity in children are exhibited via 2 different pathways:

Nutritional Pathway

These are the consequences that are linked to deficits in quantity and quality of food. Generally, families that have limited resources spend their money on low cost food, which quite often is very low in nutrients. For these families quantity is sometimes better than quality in order to feed everyone in the house. Consequently, they end up eating fewer calories, carbohydrates, dark green vegetables, fruits, grains, yogurt, nuts, seeds, dried beans and peas. This unfortunately puts them at risk for obesity, higher cholesterol values, and higher chance of developing micronutrient deficiencies. 

Stress pathway

This pathway focuses on the anxiety and depression not only the child feels, but also the caregiver due to the lack of food. With food insecure households, there is an increased chance of maternal depression, which in turn negatively affects children’s mental development and attachment. Furthermore, parents have to deal with the stress of making difficult decisions regarding basic needs. This emotional bonding/support is important for social functioning because it allows the child and the caregiver to develop a relationship through verbal and nonverbal communication signals. If the caregiver is not fully present mentally, the child misses out on developing psychosocial, cognitive and language competence. It can also promote weight gain causing children to be overweight by 24 months.

These children are being left behind while the rest of America continues to indulge themselves excessively with food to only then waste it. With the pandemic, unprecedented numbers of households are feeling insecure about their food. We need to support government programs that will help fill the gap for these children. Food is a basic need and essential to the growth and development of children.