Child Poverty

  • Child Poverty

    CDF Joins Over 60 Organizations Urging the Incoming Administration to Establish Universal School Meals

    We urge the Biden administration to work with Congress and take every administrative step possible to establish Universal School Meals. This would ensure that every child in the U.S. has access to the nutritious breakfast and lunch at school that can help support their academic success. School meals reduce childhood hunger, decrease childhood overweight and obesity, improve child nutrition and wellness, enhance child development and school readiness, and support learning, attendance, and behavior.

  • Child Poverty

    Why It’s Time to Think Universal School Meals for Our Children

    Child nutrition programs help our nation’s children get the food they need to learn, grow, and thrive—especially children in low-income households. The long-standing problem of school meal access and reimbursements, lunch shaming, lunch debt, and the stigmatization of children having to prove they are hungry and worthy of meals means millions of children lose out. It’s past time to abandon burdensome reimbursement and eligibility requirements and fully fund universal school meals for every child so that our programs are flexible and robust to meet children’s needs, not the other way around. 

    | National

  • Child Health

    After Nine Months of Neglecting the Needs of Children and Families, Congress Will Finally Vote on a COVID Relief Bill

    After nine months of failing to pass a COVID relief bill and neglecting the needs of millions of children and families suffering the unprecedented public health, racial justice, and economic and unemployment crisis brought on by this pandemic, Congress will finally vote on a long overdue bipartisan relief bill. While this package was a step in the right direction under a strict timeline ahead of the holidays, it does not include many additional provisions that are needed to fully meet the needs of all our nation’s children and families, especially the most vulnerable.

    | National

  • Child Poverty

    Child Poverty in America 2019: National Analysis

    Official poverty data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on September 15, 2020 show nearly 10.5 million children in America lived in poverty in 2019, about 1.4 million fewer than in 2018. The national child poverty rate declined from 16.2 percent in 2018 to 14.4 percent in 2019. Although 2019 data show a decline in poverty numbers, these estimates do not reflect the current realities and heightened disparities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Child Poverty

    Why Changes to the Tax Credits Are Critical Before Congress Adjourns

    Before Congress leaves for the holidays, critical changes are needed to adjust how our tax credits are calculated for next year's tax filing season. Unfortunately, neither the bipartisan framework nor the McConnell stimulus package includes changes to the tax credits, and that’s a problem for children and families.

    | National

  • Child Poverty

    Eviction Moratorium Is Expiring and Millions of Children Are at Risk of Losing Their Home

    The rent has come due again amid another spike in COVID-19 cases and millions of families can’t afford to pay. According to the latest Census data, 1 in 4 renter families with children are behind on the rent. The only thing standing between these families and eviction is the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) temporary eviction moratorium, which took effect in September and is set to expire at the end of the year. If the eviction moratorium is not extended by the CDC before the year’s end and does not include some changes to the existing language to ensure more families are covered, 30 to 40 million renters are at risk of losing their home.

    | National

  • Child Poverty

    New Census Data Shows Child Poverty Persists Across America, Even Prior to COVID-19 Pandemic, Especially for Children of Color and Indigenous Children

    Saint Paul, Minn. – The Census Bureau has released its annual poverty data indicating that in 2019, 10.5 million American children lived in poverty, among them 143,000 Minnesota children (11.2 percent), making them the poorest age group. While these estimates do not adequately capture the present-day realities of Americans due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, they do reveal the vast racial inequities of income and wealth in Minnesota that have only become more pronounced during this public health crisis.

    | Minnesota

  • Child Health

    The Work That Remains

    On behalf of the Children’s Defense Fund, I’m asking you to recommit yourself to the important work of eradicating the evils of poverty and racism and pushing for a just future for all children. This work is not easy, it can be uncomfortable, and it can be messy. But as fully engaged participants in this democracy, we must do the work.

    | National