“Within the past 12 months, we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more. Within the past 12 months, the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.” Yes or no?
Answering yes to either of these questions indicates that a family is struggling with food insecurity, according to a new AAP policy statement titled Promoting Food Security for All Children.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines a food-insecure household as one in which “access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money or other resources.”
Pediatricians can use the two-item tool to screen children for food insecurity and refer those who screen positively to resources that support access to adequate healthy food, according to the policy, which is available atwww.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2015-3301 and will appear in the November issue of Pediatrics.
“It is important for pediatricians to be aware of the fact that food insecurity can occur in any population,” said Sarah Jane Schwarzenberg, M.D., FAAP, a lead author of the statement and a member of the AAP Committee on Nutrition. “I think sometimes people believe food insecurity affects only inner-city, impoverished people, but in fact, after the recession, we saw people in the suburbs and nontraditional areas experiencing food insecurity as well.”
[For more of this story, written by Lori O'Keefe, go to http://aapnews.aappublications...3/aapnews.20151023-1]
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