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Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Hunger in America

Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Hunger in America. Conference Objectives. Let’s learn from each other and strengthen our collective impact. To deepen the engagement of all participants on effective solutions to address hunger in America

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Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Hunger in America

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  1. Corporate Social Responsibility: Addressing Hunger in America

  2. Conference Objectives Let’s learn from each other and strengthen our collective impact. • To deepen the engagement of all participants on effective solutions to address hunger in America • Exchange ideas on how all partners (nonprofit, government and private sectors) can work collectively to fight hunger in America while maintaining their individual interests • Share information on the outlook for low income families

  3. Session Overview • Current State and looking forward • Impact of Food Insecurity • How Feeding America is strengthening its Network to help address hunger

  4. George Braley Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy Feeding America

  5. Hunger In America • 35 million people, including 12 million children, are food insecure. • In 25% of US states, more than one in five children under the age of five is food insecure. • Feeding America serves more than 25 million people, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors annually (Hunger in America 2006). Page 01

  6. Key Sectors In Hunger Relief • Federal Government • first line of defense • Charitable Sector • provides emergency food for men, women and children in crisis, can offer a connection to federal benefits and serve as advocates for stronger public policies • Private Sector • supports the charitable sector and influences for the greater good

  7. Current Landscape Charitable and Private Sector Federal Government Historic levels of support and partnership, but need still outpaces supply Unemployment driving new client requests. Don’t expect to return to 2007 poverty levels for many years. Food banks report 30% increase on average over a year prior (varies by region). Farm Bill dramatically increased food and funds ARRA increased SNAP funding by $20 Billion 35M people enrolled in SNAP— up 22% over a year prior • FA moved more than 2.6B pounds of food in FY09 (21% increase) • FA raised $75M (26% increase)

  8. On the Horizon • Release of Hunger In America 2010 (February) • Child Nutrition Reauthorization in 2010 • Farm Bill Reauthorization in 2012 • President Obama pledged to end child hunger by 2015 • Critical that the plan focuses on all 12M food insecure children…not just those with “very low food security.”

  9. Why We Must End Food Insecurity and Hunger In the United States Now John T. Cook, Ph.D., MA Ed. Children’s HealthWatch Principal Investigator Associate Professor Boston University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics

  10. Children’s HealthWatch (Previously the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program – C-SNAP) is: • A multi-site research center of clinicians and public health specialists for research on how food insecurity and other family hardships affect young, low-income children’s health and development. • Research sites in: Little Rock, AR, Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD, Minneapolis, MN, Philadelphia, PA (Active) Los Angeles, CA, Washington, D.C. (Inactive)

  11. Overview • Definitions and context (review if needed) • Impacts of Food insecurity and hunger • On child health and development • On family and community well-being • The economy • Alternative paths forward Page 03

  12. Definitions Poverty: Household income below an amount representing three times the minimum cost of a “nutritious diet”, defined as the cost of the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan, for different household characteristics In 2008: Average poverty threshold for two adults and two school-age children was $21,834/yr Page 03

  13. What is Poverty, Really? If 12.8% of expenditures are for food, instead of 33%, this implies the poverty threshold would be about eight times the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan. For our family of four with two school-age children, this means the poverty threshold would be approximately $55,000 per year. The Economic Self-sufficiency Project (Diana Pearce, et al.) estimates families in the US need between 2-3 times the official poverty level for minimal economic self-sufficiency. The average of those two values for 2008 is $54,600, close to eight times the Thrifty Food Plan. Page 03

  14. Proportion of U.S. Families with Incomes Below Poverty By Race/Ethnicity, 1999-2008* Slide with text and image *Households with and without children. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, various years. Page 02

  15. Definitions Food Security: Enough healthful food for all household members to lead healthy, active lives. Food Insecurity: Lack of enough healthful food for all household members to lead healthy, active lives. Hunger: The painful, uneasy sensations that are felt when a person has to reduce their food intake below their usual level repeatedly because of food insecurity. Page 03

  16. Proportion of U.S. Households that are Food Insecure, By Race/Ethnicity: 1999-2007* Slide with text and image *Households with and without children. Source: USDA\ERS Food Security in the U.S., various years. Page 02

  17. Prevalence and Level of Food Insecurity by Race/Ethnicity, All Adults and Children, 2007 Slide with text and image Page 02

  18. Prevalence of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger in the U.S., 1995-2007* Slide with text and image * Percent of children by food security status of household. Source: USDA\ERS Food Security in the U.S., various years. Page 02

  19. How Do Food Insecurity and Hunger Harm Young Children? • Through nutritional impacts • On the child • On the child’s siblings • On the child’s parents, especially the mother • Through non-nutritional impacts • On the child • On the child’s siblings • On the child’s parents, especially the mother • Impacts on the home environment • Part of a “gestalt” of interacting household stresses that include food, energy, and housing insecurity Page 03

  20. How Do Food Insecurity and Hunger Harm Young Children? • Examples of nutritional impacts • Perinatal nutrition of mother and child • Brain and CNS development of the child (cell growth, myelination, arborization, glial cells, conductivity, PUFA effects, ) • Growth impacts (stunting, wasting, structural and system anomalies, endocrine system, obesity) • Compromise of immune systems (infection-malnutrition cycle) • Energy deficits • Compromised body temperature regulation • Reduced environmental exploration Page 03

  21. How Do Food Insecurity and Hunger Harm Young Children? • Examples of non-nutritional impacts • Toxic stress (persistent or inescapable intense stress) • Child’s mental health (depression, dysthymia, suicidal ideation, behavior problems, psycho-social problems, impaired school readiness, reduced educational achievement and attainment, health-related QOL, self efficacy, self image) • Mother’s mental health (depression) • Impoverished home environment • Delay and/or deterrence of needed medical care Page 03

  22. What we Have Learned About Food Insecurity’s Impacts on Child Health & Development Source: Cook JT, Frank DA. Food Security, Poverty and Development in the United States. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. xxxx: 1–16 (2008). 2008 New York Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1196/annals.1425.001 http://www.childrenshealthwatch.org/page/Publications Adverse impacts on cognitive development, perinatal period, (0-3 yrs); may change brain architecture Adverse impacts on school-readiness (0-5 yrs); nutrition, stress, mental and emotional health of child and parents Page 03

  23. What we Have Learned About Food Insecurity’s Impacts on Child Health & Development Learning, academic performance and educational attainment (5-17 yrs); nutritional and non-nutritional impacts Physical, mental, and social development, growth and health (0-17 yrs) Psychosocial and behavior problems, and other mental health problems, including dysthymia and suicidal ideation (6-17 yrs) Child health related quality of life; perceived efficacy, functionality, and “happiness/satisfaction,” (6-17 yrs) Page 03

  24. What we Have Learned About Food Insecurity’s Impacts on Child Health & Development • Some, inconclusive evidence for associations with obesity (0-17 yrs), • Recent evidence of association among food insecurity, maternal depression, parenting practices, infant feeding, and overweight in toddlers (0-3 yrs) Page 03

  25. New Findings From Brain Research Implicates Food Insecurity and Hunger • Findings from neuroscience, child developmen and psychology are converging to indicate: • Early experience and gene-environment interaction affect the architecture of the maturing brain, (0-3 yrs) • Positive stress (short term, relieved ) can be growth producing and generally beneficial, (0-3 yrs) • Tolerable stress (moderate, short-lived) (0-3 yrs) • Toxic stress changes and harms brain architecture of developing children (0-3 yrs) Page 03

  26. Brain Brain architecture is laid downduring the first three years of life • Brain architecture is influenced by many factors, including many associated with food security and hunger. • The first 3 years of life are the most critical for brain and CNS growth and development, and can shape a person’s entire life. Page 01

  27. Brain architecture is laid downduring the first three years of life • Brain “architecture” is physical structure, and neuro-chemical “states” of over 100 billion brain cells. • Brain architecture is influenced by many factors associated with food insecurity and hunger. Page 01

  28. Brain architecture is changed by “toxic” stress Page 01

  29. Ending Child Hunger can HelpReduce Toxic Stress

  30. Ending Food Insecurity andHunger is a Necessary and VerySound Investment in a Prosperous Future • Research on food insecurity, health and neuroscience indicates that creating the right conditions for early childhood development is far more effective, and cost effective, than addressing problems at a later age. • Our basic choice: Do what we need to do to end food insecurity and hunger, or pay much higher costs for remedial education, clinical treatment, crime, lost productivity, workforce development; and all that with reduced quality of life for us all.

  31. The Time is Right, andWe Know How to Do It • We know how to end food insecurity and hunger, and now we have the opportunity to do it. • We have solved far more difficult problems in the past, and we can solve this one too. • Ending food insecurity and hunger will benefit everyone. • It will enable us to have a prosperous future for us all, and our children and grandchildren.

  32. Terry Richey Chief Development Officer Feeding America

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