Nearly one in eight families taking children to the University of Maryland Medical Center's emergency room and primary care clinic lack enough food to ensure good nutrition - putting the youngsters at risk for growth and learning problems, a study has found.
Acting on the finding, the city health department yesterday announced a plan to screen children for signs of hunger and to link families to food pantries and federal nutrition programs such as food stamps and Women Infants and Children.
"The underlying cause of hunger in Baltimore is poverty, so I don't think better coordination will make the whole problem go away, but it's going to help a lot more people,," said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein.
Though citywide statistics are not available, the study offers a snapshot of a problem that Sharfstein and public health experts say afflicts poor communities across Baltimore.
The pervasiveness of the problem is often disguised by the tendency of many poorly nourished people to become overweight or obese, said Maureen Black, professor of growth and nutrition at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the study's director. With scenes of emaciated children of Darfur ingrained in the U.S. consciousness, it's often hard to conceive of local children as nutritionally deprived.
In Baltimore and other U.S. cities, she said, poverty and food scarcities are less extreme. Yet many families buy food that is inexpensive and fattening, and skimp on food purchases during heating seasons and other times when bills pile up.
"The people hear 'malnourished,' they think 'skinny,'" Black said. "But if you're eating those noodles all the time that fill you up and have no nutritional value, you can turn fat."
Over the past four years, researchers at the downtown hospital asked a series of food-related questions to families seeking care for their children. They found that 13.5 percent of the families were "food insecure" - a federal designation that means they don't have a regular or steady supply of nutrition.
"In the United States, we should be up in arms about any food insecurity," said Black. "We are the richest country in the world, and we shouldn't have families anxious about getting their next meal."
Among families struggling with putting food on the table, 11 percent were not receiving food stamps or enrolled in WIC, the study found. More than 40 percent were receiving just one of the services, despite the fact that virtually all were eligible for both.
