A Closer Look: Spotlight on Child Health and Nutrition

Diet quality and food security status are essential components of overall child health and well-being. Healthy dietary patterns at early ages shape lifelong food preferences and support healthy physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and development for children. Children who are food insecure are more likely to experience poor diet quality and unhealthy weight gain. In 2020, 1 out of 6 children in the United States was living in food-insecure households with Black, Latino, Native American, and Asian American Pacific Islander children twice as likely to experience food insecurity compared to white children.

This spotlight issue brief developed by Feeding America’s Health Equity Action League (HEAL) in collaboration with Alliance for Healthier Generation raises awareness about the intersection of child hunger, health, and nutrition. The brief additionally offers suggestions on actions organizations and individuals can take to advance health equity and ensure all children have a fair opportunity to live long and healthy lives.