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How much will that little bundle of joy cost? According to USDA’s Cost of Raising a Child report, the answer for a child born in 2012 is $241,080 for food, shelter and other necessities over the next 17 years, which translates to about $301,970 when adjusted for inflation!

Speaking as a father and a grandfather, I know how much we as parents want to give our children the tools they need to excel at anything they set their minds to—from the essentials, like a roof over their heads and a quality education, to the fun stuff, like a brand new soccer ball, piano lessons or a trip to summer camp. We work hard to ensure our children’s future happiness and success each and every day.

USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is America’s first line of defense against hunger and new research released today makes it clear that SNAP improves food security, particularly among low-income children.

The study, funded by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and conducted by researchers at Mathematica Policy Research, found that participating in SNAP for about six months corresponded with a significant decrease in food insecurity. That effect was even more pronounced in households with children.

Providing our children safe and nutritious meals at school is a key priority for the Obama Administration.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) helped meet this goal through its $100 million investment in local school systems to enhance the nutritional quality of school meals.  This funding went towards the purchase of new kitchen equipment for thousands of schools across America participating in the National School Lunch Program .  Priority was given to schools that have at least 50 percent of the students eligible for free or reduced-priced meals.

By Dr. Janey Thornton, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

Recently I spent a wonderful day touring California’s Salinas and Pajaro Valleys.  My gracious host, Congressman Sam Farr, and I started with the most important meal of the day: breakfast.  We visited Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, which has a culinary academy for at-risk youth, where Chef Adrienne Saldivar-Meier—who visited the White House last month as part of the First Lady’s Let's Move! Campaign—served us egg and sweet potato scrambler on lettuce, a fruit/vegetable muffin, and milk.  Chef Adrienne also gave us an engaging nutrition lesson: for example, instead of wrapping our filling with a tortilla, which may have about 110 calories, we can use a lettuce leaf, a food with close to no calories.  We all enjoyed a nutritious breakfast that met the USDA standards for the School Breakfast Program while discussing ways to bring more fresh produce into school nutrition programs.