UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA BLOG

Iowa is 50^th in the nation—dead last—when it comes to fruit and vegetable consumption. We eat less green stuff than anybody else.

Children are resilient. You hear it all the time. And they are: they bounce back from skinned knees, broken bones, and fights with friends. But that doesn’t mean children are immune to trauma. Increasingly, the kids of central Iowa are put in stressful or traumatic situations, which can jeopardize a child’s future learning, behavior, and well-being over the course of a lifetime.

Most of us aren’t farmers, so harvest season passes us by without a thought. But this year—over at Telligen in West Des Moines—employees dedicated late August and September to rooting out potatoes—a harvest of hundreds of pounds for the food-insecure of central Iowa.

Life used to be a lot simpler. Kids played outside without encouragement, and “screen time” wasn’t even a phrase. But in the 21^st century, raising, teaching or caring for kids is more complicated. It can be difficult to know what’s best for kids’ health or what limits to set for them. Fortunately, the Let's Go! 5-2-1-0 program provides an easy-to-remember set of guidelines.

Kids may get a summer break, but hunger doesn’t take a vacation.

Medicaid and hawk-i as we know them have changed, beginning April 1. This affects 500,000 people—nearly one in six Iowans.

It’s hard to fathom, but in Iowa—the food capital of the world—13 percent of families don’t have a secure source of nutritious food. One in five children struggle with hunger.