When a television commercial suggests that we have a starving children epidemic in America, my first thought is "wow, that's awful." And my second thought is, "I don't believe you."

Child Hunger Facts: 1 in 6 may not know where they will get their next meal

That's a very creative (and nebulous) way to communicate that there are hungry children out there. In fact, that statistic is actually a conservative estimate of how bad things could be. Other sources use 1 in 4 and 1 in 5.

Far be it from me, as the proud father of two bird children ( Harry and Caray), to make light of a serious issue affecting children. If anyone thinks kids should have food, it's me. I just want to make sure we aren't spreading information that isn't true. I'm like Whitney Houston - I wanna see the receipts.

We often hear of (and are witness to) hamplanet toddlers and the obesity that's destroying their once tiny bodies. Low-income communities are often cited as disproportionately suffering from the McDonald's induced hamburger plague. So which is it? Are our kids tormented by a burger epidemic, or are they hungry? And who qualifies as "hungry?"

Forbes wondered the same thing:

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Childhood hunger is a nice, safe issue. No politician can be against hungry children, and we are told that the U.S. faces a child hunger problem of massive proportions. Advocacy groups repeat over and over that 16.2 million children (one in five) “struggle with hunger in the United States.” Television appeals show dispirited children going to bed hungry.

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Statistics that become part of our folklore should raise suspicion. When we dig into them, they are usually wrong.

The one-in-five childhood hunger figure should raise red flags for three reasons.

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1) First, studies of poor households show that almost half own their own homes, three quarters own a car, and almost all have a color television. The American poor seem to have money for things other than food for their children, if the one-in-five statistic is to be believed.

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2) Second, advocacy groups (with Michelle Obama as a leading spokesperson) now appear to have decided that the problem is childhood obesity, not hunger. The children, especially of the poor, are not going to bed hungry. They are eating too much of the wrong foods.

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3) Third, if the one-in-five statistic is correct, the public food stamps and school free lunch programs must be colossal failures. Despite their wide reach into poor communities, they apparently leave more than thirty percent of school children “struggling with hunger.”

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Where does the one-in-five figure come from and what does it really measure?
The USDA classifies households as “food insecure” if they report worrying about not having enough money to buy food, if they substitute cheaper foods, skip meals, or eat less for financial reasons. If they do these things frequently, they are classified as “very low food secure.”

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Not publicized by the childhood hunger lobby are the USDA’s most direct measures of childhood hunger. They reveal that between one and two percent of families “cut the size of children's meals” or report that “children were hungry” or “skipped meals.” And only one tenth of one percent of families reported that “children did not eat for a whole day.” These findings do not suggest, to say the least, an epidemic of childhood hunger.

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A wealthy nation like the United States should have no hungry children. The USDA figures show that we are close to this ideal. That “food insecure” families spend almost enough to buy the government’s suggested minimum balanced diet tells us that the problem is poor food choice, not hunger per se.

Forbes: Are One In Five American Children Hungry?

This post was edited on 7/11/18 at 11:06 am