Nearly one in five children has not had enough to eat in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to a report published Wednesday by an American think tank. The Brookings Institution analyzes the results of two recent national studies there to measure the impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the country. In one of these two studies, 17.4% of the mothers of children aged 12 and under questioned said that they could not feed their offspring enough for lack of money.
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"It is evident that the youngest children are suffering from food insecurity to an unprecedented degree in contemporary times," notes Lauren Bauer, who compiled the report for the Brooking Institution. "Food insecurity in households with children aged 18 and under has increased by 130% compared to 2018," she said. Some parents, warns the researcher, are forced to reduce the portions on the plates, or even outright to skip meals for their children. Partly at issue: the interruption of meal distribution programs in schools, closed because of the pandemic, she explains, calling on the authorities to come to the aid of these disadvantaged populations.
At least 30 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic. The unemployment rate for April, to be announced on Friday, could approach 20%, a level never reached in the country since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The United States recorded in total more than 1, 2 million cases of new coronavirus, for nearly 73,000 deaths, according to the count, continuously updated, of Johns Hopkins University.