Food insecurity affects the pediatric population from their time in utero until adulthood. Mothers unable to consume adequate calories and a variety of healthy foods can lead to low birth weight infants and birth defects. Breastfeeding mothers must first nourish their own bodies to produce quality milk for their growing babies. Angela Cabarcas, M.D., associate medical director for Neighborhood Health Centers Cook Children’s Physician Network (CCPN) at Cook Children’s Health Care System, explains that early childhood development, cognitive skills, linear growth and the immune system can all be negatively impacted by poor nutrition.
The impact of the pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is significant, given the existing challenge of food insecurity in North Texas. A recent Cook Children’s Community Health Needs Assessment found that one in five children are food-insecure in the U.S., and Texas has the largest number of food-insecure children in the nation. The rate and number of children experiencing food insecurity are the highest it has been since 2014, with the largest one-year increase since 2008. The report also indicated that in Cook Children’s eight-county service area, 21% of children, about 236,400, live in a household that reported receiving food stamps or SNAP benefits in the past year.
“A child’s everyday behavior could be distracted by their hungry belly or stressed because they don’t know what they will be able to eat for dinner that night,” said Cabarcas.
Recognizing that health is all-encompassing, Cook Children’s Health Care System has actively worked to mitigate the impact of food insecurity before the government shutdown by piloting food distribution to eligible patient families, the Center for Community Health program families, and Health Plan members…