In an article being early released in Pediatrics this week, entitled “COVID-19 Economic Supports and Household Food Security Patterns,” Alysse Kowalski, PhD, and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, and RTI outline how federal child tax credits and payments to caregivers impacted food security during the COVID-19 pandemic (10.1542/peds.2024-069420).
The authors highlight that food insecurity increased during the early part of the pandemic before the federal government enacted stimulus payments to families and expanded the child tax credit.
Nearly 700 families from low- and middle-income communities in Maryland were enrolled in this study in which they completed the 2-item Hunger Vital Sign screening tool during four different time periods from 2017 through 2023. Households are at risk for food insecurity if either or both of the following statements is “often” or “sometimes” true within the past 12 months:
- We worried if our food would run out before we got money to buy more.
- The food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.
While the majority (two thirds) of the families remained food secure and 10% remained food insecure throughout the study period, nearly a quarter (24%) transitioned in and out of food insecurity.
Chronologically, federal payments to families and expansion of the child tax credits appear to correlate with a reduction in food security among those (24%) enrolled families who transitioned out and in to food insecurity. Once those federal programs were terminated, the authors found that those same families experienced increased food insecurity above that which was observed prior to the implementation of those federal programs. This may be attributable, the authors posit, to the inflationary increases in prices for many foods that occurred and persisted throughout the pandemic.
With the US federal government willing and able to run fiscal deficits to fund certain priorities (e.g., defense spending, tax cuts, etc.), this study highlights that federal officials can meaningfully ameliorate food insecurity when doing so is prioritized. It is up to us to remind our elected officials of this point. As pediatricians we are called to advocate on behalf of those (our patients) who cannot and/or are unable to advocate for themselves. Let us continue to press our elected officials to prioritize food security for our patients and their families.
