In this brief, Children's HealthWatch finds that the prevalence of food insecurity in a five-city sample of low-income families with young children increased from 18.5 to 22.6 percent between 2007 and 2008. This is the largest year-to-year change seen in the dataset since 2001 and suggests that we are likely to see significant increases in food insecurity when the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues its own statistics for 2008 later this year.

Turning Point: The Long Term Effects of Recession-induced poverty

Following four cohorts of children who lived through post-war American recessions for up to twenty years of adulthood, researchers at First Focus compared the differences in outcomes along income, employment, education, and health variables for three different categories of children: those who fell into poverty during a recession, those who stayed out of poverty during a recession, and those who were already living in poverty even before the recession began.

A July 8 Congressional briefing hosted by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and the Afterschool Alliance laid out some surprising facts and inspiring optimism about this fall’s opportunity to build a better food program for the nation’s vulnerable children. CFK has this field report.

A CFK summary and list of some key issues in health care reform. This is constantly evolving, so check back often.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) enacted in February contains several provisions to reduce the harmful impact of Medicaid’s citizenship documentation requirement, which has caused many eligible citizen children to lose or be denied coverage since its 2006 enactment. By implementing these changes immediately, states can lighten the burden that the requirement imposes on otherwise eligible families.

Witnessing violence in high-crime urban areas could increase levels a hormone in young children that could cause long-term health problems such as diabetes and heart disease, researchers said.

A new report from Families USA, “Americans at Risk”, takes a closer look at who is uninsured in your state. Families USA examines who was uninsured under the age of 65 for some period of time in 2007 and 2008. As it turns out, the number is a lot higher than is often reported. As the report states, uninsured people go without screenings and preventive care, delay or forgo needed care, and tend to be sicker and die earlier than their insured friends and neighbors. On top of that, uninsured families risk bankruptcy from skyrocketing medical costs and piling medical debt.

The Witness to Hunger program armed 40 mothers with video cameras and set them out to document their lives and what it takes to feed a family in tight times. “These women are the experts on what it’s like to deal with the consequences of what our lawmakers decide,” says the program’s creator Marianna Chilton. On June 2, 2009, these experts took on Capitol Hill.

Congress passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which includes the HEARTH Act reauthorizing the HUD McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act programs. Is it good for children and youth? Yes—but there's a major missed opportunity, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan advocacy group First Focus.

Context and resources to help you cut through the hype.