Housing and food insecurity are two persistent realities in the lives of children that often go hand in hand. For the close to 1.4 million students who experience homelessness across the country, hunger is one of the many challenges they face that affect their ability to learn and thrive. Students who experience homelessness are more likely to go without breakfast and less likely to eat a healthy and balanced diet.

Fortunately, schools can play a fundamental role in providing these students with the resources that they need in order to overcome the detrimental effects of both hunger and homelessness. For many of these students, school may be their only source of stability, and free school meals may be their only reliable source of nourishment.

Yet access to resources combating hunger and housing insecurity can vary depending on where a homeless student lives, how these programs are implemented, and whether homeless and hungry students are identified by schools in the first place. To mark Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, ICPH invited Derrick Lambert, Senior Manager at Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, to participate in a short Q&A to help shed light on these critical issues.

What does child hunger look like in America?

Today, one in seven kids in the U.S. lives with hunger—every day, in every community. More than 11 million children live in “food insecure” homes. That phrase may sound mild, but it means that those households don’t have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life.

Read the full article about homeless children by Katie Puello at the Institute for Children, Poverty, & Homelessness.