When the Safety Net Shrinks: How U.S. Child Poverty Nearly Tripled — and Why It Matters Here at Home

Child poverty in the United States just did something we don’t usually see in such a short time: it dropped to a historic low… and then almost tripled.

 

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s report Measuring Access to Opportunity: A 10-Year Update, child poverty (measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM) fell to just 5% in 2021, the lowest level on record. By 2024, as temporary pandemic-era supports expired, that rate had surged back up to 13%.

 

Behind those percentages are millions of real children and parents who suddenly find themselves back on the edge, even though they’re doing everything they can to stay afloat.

 

For families, that shift doesn’t feel like a line on a chart. It looks like grocery lists getting shorter, meals getting smaller, and the constant mental math of which bill can wait this month so the kids can eat tonight.

 

 

The Casey Foundation’s report uses the Supplemental Poverty Measure because it tells a more honest story about how families live. Instead of just looking at income, it also counts things like tax credits, food assistance, and housing supports—programs that don’t show up in a paycheck but absolutely show up in a child’s life.

 

In 2021, powerful tools were in place: expanded Child Tax Credit payments, enhanced SNAP benefits, and other pandemic relief that helped families keep food on the table and a roof overhead. With those supports, SPM child poverty fell to that record low of 5%.

 

Then those temporary supports ended while prices kept climbing—for groceries, rent, gas, and everything else. By 2024, child poverty had risen to 13%. The report goes one step further and asks: What if those remaining public programs didn’t exist at all? The answer is sobering. Without key supports like the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, SNAP, Social Security, SSI, and housing subsidies, child poverty would have reached an estimated 25% in 2024—five times higher than the 2021 low.

 

Those programs kept millions of children out of poverty. And here’s another important detail: in 2024, a majority of children in poverty lived in families with at least one working parent. Poverty, in other words, is not about families refusing to work. It’s about paychecks that don’t stretch as far as rent, utilities, child care, transportation, and food—and a safety net that’s been pulled tighter in some places and looser in others.

 

So what does all this have to do with a food bank in Battle Ground, Washington?

 

Quite a lot.

 

Here at North County Community Food Bank, we see the local version of these national numbers every day. We serve neighbors across North Clark County—people living in communities like Amboy, Battle Ground, Brush Prairie, Heisson, and Yacolt—who are trying to weather the same economic currents reflected in the data.

 

When child poverty rises nationally, it shows up here as:

• More parents quietly asking if there’s any extra cereal this week

• More grandparents raising grandkids on fixed incomes

• More families coming in for the first time after an unexpected layoff, medical bill, or rent increase

A box of food can’t solve every problem, but in that moment, it solves a big one. It means there’s dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow, and at least a little breathing room to figure out the next step.

 

North County Community Food Bank doesn’t just hand out groceries and send people on their way. Our mission is about creating a community where no one goes hungry—and that includes building confidence, instilling hope, and helping people move toward greater stability.

 

Through our programs and partnerships, families who come through our doors can connect with nutrition and cooking education, employment support, budgeting help, and other services that make the most of every dollar and every opportunity. Food is often the first reason someone walks in, but it’s rarely the only support they need.

 

The national report carries a message that’s actually hopeful, even in the middle of hard news: we know what works.

 

Child poverty didn’t fall to 5% by accident, and it didn’t climb back to 13% by accident either. Policy choices—and the way we invest in children and families—made the difference both times. The data show that when we expand tax credits, strengthen food assistance, and ensure families can meet basic needs, millions of children are lifted above the poverty line. When we pull those supports back, many of those same children fall right through the cracks again.

 

At the local level, we can’t rewrite federal policy by ourselves. But we can make sure that as these big shifts happen, kids in our own community aren’t left to bear the full weight of them.

 

Every bag of rice, every jar of peanut butter, every fresh apple on a pantry shelf is a small, concrete answer to a very big problem. Every volunteer who shows up to sort food, greet clients, or help with distribution becomes part of a living, breathing safety net that stretches far beyond any policy debate. And every financial contribution helps keep our doors open and our shelves stocked so we’re ready when the next family walks through the door, wondering if anyone will be able to help.

 

Child poverty has nearly tripled in just a few years—that’s the reality. But another reality is this: we are not powerless.

 

We can choose to see these numbers as a call to turn inward and give up… or as a call to turn toward each other and get to work. At North County Community Food Bank, we choose the second. We choose community over despair, action over apathy, and hope over resignation.

 

And when you donate, volunteer, or simply share what you’ve learned, you’re making that same choice.

 

Together, we can’t fix everything. But together, we can make sure a child in North Clark County has enough to eat tonight, that their parents feel a little less alone, and that our community keeps moving toward the vision we hold so close to our hearts: a place where no one goes hungry, no matter what the national statistics say.

 

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Source credit: All national child poverty statistics in this blog are drawn from the Annie E. Casey Foundation report, Measuring Access to Opportunity: A 10-Year Update.