low-income-children

Offering families financial assistance to purchase food in the summer improved school-aged children’s food security by 20 percent and boosted the quality of their diets, according to an April 2018 study published in Pediatrics.

Studies have long shown that a child’s environment influences—for better or worse—his or her opportunities for success later in life. Children from high-poverty areas generally fare worse across a wide range of measures, from income to health to psychological well-being. Policymakers, meanwhile, grapple with how to craft programs to level the playing field for low-income children and reduce problems such as teen violence and school dropout rates.