The Hidden Epidemic of Teen Hunger

A few years back, Susan J. Popkin was investigating sexual health interventions in Washington D.C.’s public housing. The veteran housing and poverty researcher got wind of stories from parents that some teenagers in the community were essentially trading sex for food. “We were stunned to hear it,” she says.

The problem of child hunger is a vast one—one in five American children live in food-insecure households, according to the USDA. But most of the resources and research are directed toward younger children; adolescents at the upper end of the age spectrum often get overlooked. “It’s easy to line up little kids and give them a backpack filled with food,” says Popkin. “But you can’t really do that with teens. There are stigmas about not wanting to stand out. I think they’re often seen as too hard to get to.”