Children Are the Poorest Members of the U.S. Population

In the country with the largest economy in the world, the country that is supposed to be a showcase for human rights, children are the poorest members of the population, something that will ensure problems in the future.

Today, it is a reality that children are the most vulnerable part of American society, since close to 17 million children suffer from food insecurity, according to Feeding America. This organization brings together 200 food banks and is the most important charitable food distribution organization in the country.

In the United States, poverty and hunger go hand in hand. 20.7 percent of children are poor, and that percentage rises to 33.1 percent among Hispanic children, according to a recent report by the Bread for the World Institute, a religious movement against world hunger. According to the study, food insecurity problems affected 14.7 percent of American households in 2009, while Hispanics were even more heavily faced with poverty at 26.9 percent.

The analysis, based on figures from the Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture, states that the general poverty index among Americans is 14.3 percent, while among Hispanics it rises to 25.3 percent. On U.S. soil, at least 34.9 percent of Latinos under the age of 18 suffer from hunger, which is a higher figure than the 23.2 percent of children suffering from hunger in the overall American population.

As a result of the severe economic crisis and unemployment affecting more than 14 million Americans, 30 percent of Hispanic families had to resort to food aid funds to break the famine. The institute noted that this situation affects the health of the population and pointed out, for example, that Latino children suffer disproportionately from obesity, diabetes, asthma and hypertension

The poverty line determined by the U.S. federal government is set at an income of $21,756 a year for a four-person family.

Data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicates that the recent recession eliminated many of the economic benefits for children born in the late 1990s, while pointing out that the number of children affected by foreclosures and home evictions is troubling — both factors that make it more difficult to secure the well-being of children.

An expert from this organization states that in 2010, 11 percent of children had at least a father or a mother who was unemployed.

Viewed from another perspective, Latino children are the fastest-growing population in this country, and at the same time, they are swelling the ranks of the poorest population in the U.S. According to the last census in 2010, Latinos now number just under 50 million people and make up the largest minority in the country.

The Hispanic child population (under 17 years old) is the largest growing, compared with other age groups and ethnicities: Today, the population is 17 million, and it has increased by 39 percent in only the last decade, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

One out of every four children in the country lives without secure access to enough nutritious food. “African-American children are facing the worst crisis since the times of slavery, and in many areas, Hispanic and Native American children are in a similar situation,”* according to the center.

Latino children don’t know if they are eating today or if they will eat tomorrow; over a third live in poverty and food insecurity, according to The State of America’s Children’s 2011 report.

The crisis is also relentlessly bombarding the future of America. The maintenance of food aid programs is threatened by budget cuts or by project changes that hinder the functioning of the social safety net for poor children.

Since the economic recession intensified in 2007, over 800,000 people have been incorporated into the Woman, Infants and Children aid program. 76 percent of the beneficiaries of this program are children and adolescents.

Some say that American society is mistreating its own relief programs by failing to guarantee the satisfaction of basic needs. To make this situation more critical, the Census Bureau stated in its latest report that the number of poor people in the United States may increase for the fourth consecutive year. The bureau’s data indicates that the country’s poverty rate is 14.3 percent, equivalent to 43.6 million people.

Analysts maintain that in the early 1960s, American children made up the largest part of the country’s poor population. Childhood poverty grew steadily from 2000 to 2009 by 18 percent, jumping from 2.5 million to 14.7 million with significant impact in the southern states and among minorities, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. If one share’s in the belief that children are the hope of the world and it’s future, America faces a serious problem.

An even more critical issue is the fact that this country, along with Somalia, are the only two members of the United Nations that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

*Translator’s Note: This quote, while accurately translated, could not be verified.