According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (see the link below), 22% of American children live in poverty. That means they live below the federal poverty level of $23,550 a year for a family of four. Many of their parents work but earn too little to support their children or have interrupted employment. According to UNICEF (see the link below), the U.S. ranks 36 out of 41 among industrialized nations for its rate of childhood poverty. In other words, childhood poverty is worse in the U.S. than in most industrialized nations. In Norway, only 5.3% of children live in poverty.
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics reported that in 2010, 22% of children lived with food insecurity, meaning that at certain points of the month or year, the family has a less-than-adequate food supply. For example, the parents could be out of work, or the family could be waiting for payments from the government (which often are inadequate and run out by the end of the month). Food insecurity contributes to the inability of poor families to provide nutritious meals to their children, in spite of their best intent to do so. In addition, poverty and the resulting chaos it imposes on a family mean that poor families cannot often plan for meals, and the parents have limited decisions about what kinds of food they can provide. Poor parents often do not have the money to drive to stores (which may be located a far distance away) and to buy all the ingredients necessary to make nutritious meals in advance.
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