TOPLINE:

Food insecurity affected 13.5% of children living in households receiving benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), with older children and those with special healthcare needs having increased odds of food insecurity. Asian children had lower odds of food insecurity than non-Hispanic White children.

METHODOLOGY:

• Despite the existence of federal nutrition programs like WIC or SNAP, many households still experience food insecurity.
• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the 2022-2023 National Survey of Children’s Health to identify risk factors for unresolved food insecurity in 16,482 households receiving the benefits from these programs.
• The outcome measure was caregiver-reported food insecurity in the past 12 months.
• A total of 70,312,432 children were surveyed, with 3,768,184 living in food-insecure households, of whom 1,543,187 did not receive benefits from either program.
• The cohort included 16,375,272 children (48.3% girls) from households receiving the benefits, with 2,207,545 of them (13.5%) reported as facing food insecurity.

TAKEAWAY:

• Children aged 6-11 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.35; P = .010) and those aged 12-17 years (aOR, 1.46; P < .001) had higher odds of food insecurity than those aged 0-5 years.
• Children with special healthcare needs also had increased odds of food insecurity (aOR, 1.40; P = .001).
• Households with lower levels of the federal poverty ratio had significantly higher odds of food insecurity, with the highest odds in those with a ratio of 0%-99% vs ≥ 400 (aOR, 4.25; P < .001). Children with caregivers who had some college or technical education had higher odds of food insecurity than those whose caregivers had a college degree or higher (P = .012).
• Asian children had lower odds of food insecurity than non-Hispanic White children (aOR, 0.35; P < .001). The odds of food insecurity were also higher in children with public insurance (aOR, 1.58; P = .020) or no insurance (aOR, 2.34; P < .001) than in those with private insurance alone.

IN PRACTICE:

“[O]ur findings highlight risk factors associated with unresolved FI [food insecurity] among benefit-receiving households. These results raise concerns about whether families’ current nutritional benefits adequately meet needs and underscore the importance of tailoring food assistance and related supports,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Marianna Castellanos, MD, of the Department of Pediatrics at the Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. It was published online on November 7, 2025, in Pediatrics.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was cross-sectional in nature, and when or how long the benefits were received in relation to food insecurity could not be determined.

DISCLOSURES:

The study did not receive any specific funding. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.