A new study by the Urban Institute, a D.C.-based think tank, found that kids in poor communities across the country are hungry enough to trade sex, sell drugs, and join gangs for food, reports The Guardian.
Susan Popkin, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and lead author of the report, “Impossible Choices,” told the newspaper: “Even for me, who has been paying attention to this and has heard women tell their stories for a long time, the extent to which we were hearing about food being related to this vulnerability was new and shocking to me, and the level of desperation that it implies was really shocking to me. It’s a situation I think is just getting worse over time.”
The qualitative study used 10 focus groups in urban and rural areas, from Los Angeles to North Carolina. “A total of 193 participants aged 13 to 18 took part and were allowed to remain anonymous,” The Guardian reported. “Their testimony paints a picture of teenagers — often overlooked by policymakers focused on children aged zero to five — missing meals, making sacrifices and going hungry, with worrying long-term consequences.”
The teens overwhelmingly said they would rather work legitimate jobs to earn money for food, but that their prospects were limited. The Guardian said the study found tremendous shame among the kids around the issue of hunger, and that they would save school lunches to eat on the weekends, while eating at friends’ or relatives’ homes during the week.