Summit Tackles the Latino Paradox of Childhood Hunger and Obesity

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While the USDA works with state agencies to provide food assistance and nutrition education to low-income, members of No Mas Hambre say that Latino families continue to struggle with accessing such services.

Children in the Latino community suffer the paradox of malnutrition and obesity. While 26.2% of Latino households have been identified as facing food insecurity, nearly 40% of Latino children are overweight or obese. At a recent No Mas Hambre summit in Washington D.C., government officials, non-profit, organizations, and members of the community, gathered address the issue of hunger in the Latino community.

Topics discussed at the summit included: challenges to reducing food insecurity; childhood nutrition and food insecurity; the role of faith-based organization; and solutions to fighting hunger. While Latinos stand to benefit from federal assistance programs such SNAP, concern as to which foods should be eligible for purchase through SNAP have been raised.

The No Mas Hambre summit also brought together members of the faith community, the USDA’s La Mesa Completa initiative, and Let’s Move Faith and Communities.

As a supplement to the La Mesa Completa toolkit, Latinos can now take advantage of the free La Mesa Toolkit Webinar.

Read about the summit in Spanish here.