Washington Post article on child hunger

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Missing more than a meal
Child hunger, called the 'silent epidemic,' is an increasingly complex problem

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 12, 2009

PHILADELPHIA -- Three weeks before he was elected president, Barack Obama set an audacious goal: end hunger among children in the United States by 2015.

Since his inauguration, Obama has seldom broached the subject. His aides brainstorm weekly with several agencies, but their internal conversations so far have not produced fundamentally new approaches. The president's goal could prove daunting: Childhood hunger is more complex than previously understood, new research suggests, and is unlikely to be solved simply by spending more money for food programs.

If Obama intends to erase childhood hunger, the government will need to reach even further into the rowhouse kitchen where Anajyha Wright Mitchell sometimes takes tiny portions so her mother will have more food. "I tell her to eat, eat, eat, because she is real skinny," Anajyha, 12, said of her mother, Andrea Mitchell.

Anajyha, a serious girl with two younger brothers and a mother who has lost two of her three part-time jobs, is growing up with an ebb and flow of food typical of a growing number of families. In her home, in a scuffed neighborhood called Strawberry Mansion a few miles north of the Liberty Bell, food stamps arrive but never last the month. There can be cereal but no milk. Pancake mix and butter but no eggs.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/11/AR2009121102697_pf.html

Wait...isn't Andrea Mitchell the foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News? Oh yeah, some poor American just happens to share her name!

[grilled onions]

1. Think About This When Donating To Food Pantries

Many households do not have the staples many of us take for granted. One may have good intentions to purchase,say pancake mix, not realizing that a typical pancake mix requires milk,eggs,oil as well as pancake syrup. Thre are alternative mixes that are all in one(which only requires water) and that would be a huge step to help both the pantries and those who get the food. Hot cereals are often a better choice too. It stretches further and requires little or no milk. A hot cereal can often be a hot meal for any time of time and often has more nutrition per bowl then many cold cereals.