When you picture the face of hunger in Milwaukee, what does it look like?
Experts in Milwaukee say there isn’t one type of person that should come to mind.
Right now, there are college students, working parents and seniors who are facing food insecurity due to high costs of housing, groceries, utilities and gas.
But hunger takes a special toll on our youngest and often most vulnerable neighbors, according to Matt King, the CEO of Hunger Task Force, which is Milwaukee’s largest free food bank and anti-hunger organization.
"Milwaukee can be a tough place to be a kid. In Milwaukee, one in four children lives in poverty, and of those, one in four are under the age of five," he says. "We have a high rate of poverty amongst young children and with young families that are struggling to make ends meet.”
Food insecurity doesn’t have a hard-and-fast definition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially says that it's when people don't have enough to eat and don't know where their next meal will come from.
Hunger Task Force has seen a 50% increase in visits to its network of food pantries in just the last two years.
The increase has been among people in all stages of life, but parents who were making ends meet during the pandemic because of assistance programs and tax credits have seen those sources of aid dry up.
King says that’s had a significant impact on kids, even when parents make sacrifices.
"People are going hungry in order to be able to feed their kids," he says. "People are skipping meals in order to make sure that their kids are fed or people are skipping whole meals as a family so that they can keep a roof over their head.”
Hunger impacts a kid's ability to learn, grow and behave at school
When kids go without a meal or don’t know if they’ll have enough food at home, it creates ripple effects across the rest of their lives, according to Kyndal Hettich, a registered dietician at Children’s Wisconsin.
“Not having enough food can lead to low energy levels, weight loss, susceptibility to illness in both acute and chronic illnesses, and difficulties concentrating in school," she says. "And being hungry can also make a child or any person more irritable and have it cause more difficulty in regulating their mood.”
Like in many cities, child hunger in Milwaukee reaches its peak in the summer.
That's when students are home from school and far away from the free breakfasts and lunches provided in public schools. Summer meal programs have stepped up to close that gap, says King, of Hunger Task Force.
“So this summer, as an example, we have 130-plus sites across Milwaukee County where children can receive free meals. Last summer, we served just under 500,000 meals during the summer months," he says.
Food insecurity also spikes during other times of the year.
Dietician Hettich says hunger often rises when a family member who’s been working loses their job.
“Because it just means that there's less money available to spend on food," she says. "And so this could really impact families that have caregivers that do seasonal work. So maybe they work more in the summer but don't have as much work in the winter or vice versa."
Federal food benefits often run out as grocery prices increase, expert says
In Wisconsin, federal SNAP food benefits are called FoodShare.
The program is a lifeline for kids. Seventy-nine percent of households that receive FoodShare contain at least one child.
But Hettich points out that higher costs mean recipients often spend all the money before the next benefit distribution — forcing families to look elsewhere for help.
“It just does not seem like even what people are getting lasts long enough," she says. "So oftentimes there just needs to be other resources to help offset what food share doesn't [cover]."
New work requirements passed in the Republican budget bill of 2025 only impact families who have children over 13 years old in their households.
But it will impact parents of older children and others who will be required to prove they are working or volunteering.
For now, many people in Milwaukee, including children, will rely on community food organizations to make up the difference.
Do you have a question about education or how schools work in our area? Submit it here to WUWM education reporter Katherine Kokal.
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