Eos Grantees in the News

Eos Grantee Teams with Congressman McGovern to Raise Hunger Awareness

July 2008

With nearly 11% of Massachusetts residents experiencing hunger or the impacts of poor nutrition, Eos grantee Children's Healthwatch (formerly C-SNAP—the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment program), a nonpartisan research and public policy center—has teamed with Congressman Jim McGovern to raise awareness about hunger in Massachusetts. Along with advocates and other physicians, Children's Healthwatch founder Dr. Deborah Frank and McGovern recently taped a one-hour special television program called “Hunger in the Commonwealth.”

Despite Massachusetts’ general prosperity, the high cost of living and wide income disparities make hunger a serious problem. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national leader on child welfare issues, released a study in late 2007 revealing that Massachusetts ranks dead last among all 50 states in terms of the well-being of low income children. In fact, 166,000 Bay State children are “food insecure.”

The problem is frequently hidden, however, because hunger is not always associated with thinness or starvation, as in developing nations. Instead, hunger often manifests itself in obesity, because processed, unhealthy food can be more affordable than nutritious alternatives. The impacts on young children can be dramatic—children in families without reliable access to healthy food are 76% more likely to be at risk developmentally, and 33% more likely to be hospitalized up to age three.

The program with Congressman McGovern will air in September in 220 communities and will reach 1.8 million households. Raising awareness is a crucial first step in ensuring Massachusetts children have access to nutritious food—the most basic resource they need to be healthy and succeed later in life. Click for MetroWest Daily News coverage, or to learn more about Children's Healthwatch.

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