Food insecurity

A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person’s health and how much they need the social safety net. It’s time the government’s big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.

The firearm, obesity, and opioid epidemics are among the most important public health crises of our time. Each epidemic has a complex etiology that challenges efforts at mitigation.

Affordable housing campaigns are not new, of course, but what is unprecedented and transformative about Opportunity Starts at Home is the scope and diversity of the partners that are joining forces to advocate for more robust and equitable federal housing policies.

Nearly 60 percent of Oklahoma K-12 kids qualify for free and reduced lunches at school. It's a meal they can rely on during the most of the year, but when summer comes around the meal often goes away.

“Families are borrowing from already-limited food budgets to keep a roof over their heads”

Postsecondary attainment is increasingly necessary to move out of poverty and homelessness and live a healthy, productive life.

When the school day ends, far too many children return home to empty refrigerators and bare cupboards. The federal Afterschool Nutrition Programs provide healthy meals and snacks to children to ensure they are fed after school (and on weekends and during school holidays).

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Tuesday announced $3 million in grants to 13 community organizations that address things like housing, hunger and other societal factors that affect someone’s health.

These programs, available at 10 Wichita middle and high schools so far, include extended serving times in cafeterias, grab-and-go breakfasts from carts or kiosks, and “second-chance breakfast,” in which students are offered breakfast after homeroom or first period.

The federally funded School Breakfast Program is critical to addressing childhood hunger and food insecurity.