A Safety Net Unraveling: Feeding Young Children During COVID-19

The emergence of COVID-19 in the United States led most states to close or severely limit the capacity of their early child-care and education (ECE) programs. This loss affected millions of young children, including many of the 4.6 million low-income children who are provided free meals and snacks b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of public health (1971) Vol. 111; no. 1; pp. 116 - 120
Main Authors Bauer, Katherine W, Chriqui, Jamie F, Andreyeva, Tatiana, Kenney, Erica L, Stage, Virginia C, Dev, Dipti, Lessard, Laura, Cotwright, Caree J, Tovar, Alison
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Public Health Association 01.01.2021
Subjects
Administrative expenses
Child
Child care
Child Day Care Centers
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Families & family life
Families First Coronavirus Response Act 2020-US
Food
Food Assistance - economics
Food Insecurity
Food programs
Food security
Food service
Food Services - economics
Food Services - statistics & numerical data
Health Policy
Humans
Legislatures
Low income groups
Low-Income Children
Meals
Nutrition
Nutrition/Food
Pandemics
Poverty
Public health
Reimbursement
Research & Analysis
School districts
School lunches
Shelter in place
United States
United States
United States > US
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Summary:The emergence of COVID-19 in the United States led most states to close or severely limit the capacity of their early child-care and education (ECE) programs. This loss affected millions of young children, including many of the 4.6 million low-income children who are provided free meals and snacks by their ECE programs through support from the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).Although Congress swiftly authorized waivers that would allow CACFP-participating ECE programs to continue distributing food to children, early evidence suggests that most ECE programs did not have the capacity to do so, leaving a fragmented system of federal, state, and local food programs to fill the gaps created by this loss.Critical steps are needed to repair our nation's fragile ECE system, including greater investment in CACFP, to ensure the nutrition, health, and development of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
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K. W. Bauer drafted the article and finalized the submission. All of the authors contributed to the conceptualization of the article and data collection in addition to critically editing the article.
CONTRIBUTORS
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305980