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  • Having enough to eat
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What does this mean?

In Kids Stats not having enough to eat refers to children and young people who do not have an adequate amount of nutritionally-appropriate and personally-acceptable food.

Why is it important?

Constant access to an adequate nutritionally balanced diet is essential for children and young people’s development and well-being.

Insufficient food in the home can be a source of family stress that can affect parenting behaviours and in turn, children and young people’s behaviour [1]. Not having enough to eat can also affect children and young people’s health outcomes, including malnutrition, cyclical weight gain and weight loss and obesity [2].

“If you have no food you are starving and not happy” (10 year old)

Indicator

The indicator used in Kids Stats to monitor not having enough to eat is:

The number of children aged 0 to 15 years reported by their parent or carer as running out of food in the last 12 months.

This indicator was derived from a question asked in the New South Wales Population Health Survey 2005-2006.

Main findings

• Overall, 5.5% of parents or carers said they had run out of food and could not afford to buy more at least once in the last 12 months.
• Mothers with below tertiary level education were twice as likely as those with tertiary education to have run out of food in the last 12 months (6.5% compared with 3.3%).

Notes: [1] Parnell, W.R., Reid, J., Wilson, N.C., McKenzie, J., Russel, D.G. (2001). Food security: Is New Zealand a land of plenty? New Zealand Medical Journal, 114,141-145.
[2] Dunifon, R., Kowaleski-Jones, L. (2003). The influences of participation in the National School Lunch Program and food insecurity on child well-being. Social Service Review (March 2003), 72-92. 

For details of the references and to find out more about the data follow the link to Glossary and further information.