Withholding Food as a Form of Punishment and Control
Child abuse and neglect is a public health issue
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The White House has a proclamation that states:
“…I call upon all Americans to invest in the lives of our Nation’s children, to be aware of their safety and well-being, and to support efforts that promote their psychological, physical, and emotional development…”
These words were published at the same time that the administration was making plans to eviscerate U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). How does cutting SNAP “Promote psychological, physical, and emotional development”? It doesn’t and this is an excellent example of talking out of both sides of the mouth, aka, lying. Or, as I like to say in American Sign Language (ASL):
The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) published Child Maltreatment Surveillance: Uniform Definitions for Public Health and Recommended Data Elements (Leeb et al., 2008) which includes among the definitions of acts of omission (child neglect) “ a child misses or is denied meals on numerous occasions over time” (p. 17). It also includes co-occurrence of multiple types of abuse and neglect, with the example of a “parent slapping and berating a child and withholding food after reading a report card” (p.19).
I’m sure if you asked politicians if they support child abuse, they would say (indignantly), “No!” However, if you look at who these proposed cuts will impact, you will find that “43 percent of SNAP participants were children” (USDA, 2025).
This is child abuse and neglect on a massive scale—and they are targeting the most vulnerable.
Child abuse and neglect is rampant in the United States, with one in seven (14.4%) of American children experiencing abuse (Bloom et al, 2023). Kids in food insecure homes experience disproportionately more abuse than those in food secure homes; “rates of child abuse and food insecurity also disproportionately affect racial/ethnic minority groups” (Bloom et al. 2023). Other studies demonstrate associations between child abuse and eating disorders (Rosenberg, Lahav, & Ginzburg, 2023; Ryan, 1978). In addition, children who have been abused grow up to have a disproportionate risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis (Snook et al., 2024).
This is what our current administration is about: punishment and control, without considering long-term consequences. If they can withhold food from their own citizens, they believe they will control us.
I have seen this movie before.
Each time I read about the proposed cuts to SNAP, my stomach turns to knots. Withholding food from children isn’t a remote, academic topic to me. It is personal and visceral.
I was the third (and unwanted) child in a marriage fast eroding due to alcohol addiction and mental health disorders. My father was injured while serving in WWII. He returned home and, as I understand it from oral history, returned to his heavy drinking which began when he was 12 years old. He was paranoid, at times violent, and was institutionalized at St. Elizabeths for an extended period of time.1 Since we lived nearby, many holidays were spent on the grounds of St E’s. While my father’s mental health issues were at the forefront, my mother’s became evident later on.
When I was three years-old, I was placed on a plane, alone, and sent to family foster care in Connecticut. I remember the plane ride, especially being served ice cream with nuts on top. In addition, the nice lady sitting next to me gave me lifesavers. I lived with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother, several parakeets and six (!!) chihuahuas. My spoken language skills were not well developed for my age. My grandmother was deaf and my primary caregiver. She was also my source of unconditional love. American Sign Language (ASL) became my first language. In that household, I never wanted for food or love.
A year later, my mother moved to Connecticut and my childhood of unconditional love and regular food was gone. My mother found a job and a rental in low income housing. Our neighbors were in similar circumstances. One family had ten kids and took them outside in the summer with a garden hose and a bar of soap, lined them up, hosed them down, and told them to wash. We never knew what they did in the winter for bathing.
My older brother and sister were in school and I was pre-school. My mother found a baby sitter for me.2 Every morning, my breakfast was the same: oatmeal with no sugar, no raisins, no milk. If I didn’t eat my breakfast, my mother sent it with me to the babysitter for lunch. If I didn’t eat it for lunch, she put in it in front of me for dinner. My mother saw nothing wrong with this, and said I was stubborn. Fortunately, the babysitter snuck me food.
When I went to first grade at age five, my mother did not send a lunch with me. I was so hungry, I was that kid who ate food off the floor. I vividly recall finding an almost whole brownie. It was delicious! My guess is a teacher reported this to the principal, because after that I had a lunch every day. Lunch, however, was a haphazard affair, because the refrigerator had slim pickings. My sister created a sandwich she called pickle surprise: two slices of white bread, Miracle Whip, and a slice of pickle. The surprise was where the pickle was. My mother, on the other hand, did not go without lunch. She bought lunch at work. She took care of herself.
When we were in a new house down the street from the rental houses, things got a little better. My brother and sister got after school jobs. My brother worked in a convenience store and my sister worked at a grocery store as a cashier. Both of them brought food home from work, paid for out of their meager wages. This is when my mother started sending me to bed without dinner. Not once in a while. Many times a week, for some infraction or another. As I cried, my brother and sister would sneak me slices of bread.
The point of giving you my gut wrenching childhood story is that it was child abuse—and the proposed cuts to SNAP are, too. When I see that kids might lose SNAP benefits so the uber-rich can have more tax breaks, it makes me remember all the times my mother withheld food from me as punishment and control. I was an abused, neglected child. I had no ability to stand up for myself. That is no longer the case. I am an adult. I have a voice—we all have a voice and the ability to speak up.
What can we do? Here are some ideas:
• Call, email, visit, write to your representatives and urge them to support H.R.2489, Hunger-free future act of 2025, sponsored by Rep. Shontel Brown. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. It’s early days in the life of the bill, so pushing members of the committee is timely.
• Find a food bank, pantry, or other NGO that you can support with your time or money. I donate to the Maryland Food Bank and to Weekend Backpacks, which provides food for a family of three or four for a weekend.
• Grow your own and share it! I have a limited space in which to grow vegetables, so I bought and assembled a raised bed cart. It’s a good thing I know how to assemble kids’ toys! I’m also putting growing bags on my deck. There is a wonderful book for beginners by Maggie Stuckey called The Container Victory Garden. In addition to great gardening information, she has stories about victory gardens from WWI and WWII.
What other things can we do about this administration that seeks to abuse the most vulnerable?
References for this post along with other resources
ASL Rochelle. How to say lie in sign language.
Bhatti, S. (2025, February 3). They’re going after Medicaid and SNAP—here’s 3 thing you need to do. https://salaambhatti.substack.com/p/theyre-going-after-medicaid-and-snap
Blake, S. (2025, April 4). SNAP benefits cut would be blocked under new bill. https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-would-blocked-cutting-snap-benefits-under-new-bill-2055041
Bloom, M., McCoy, C., Baxter, M.A., Coffey, S. Hendrix-Dicken, A.D., Hartwell, M. (2023). Association and disparities of food security and child abuse: Analysis of the national survey of children’s health. https://scholars.okstate.edu/files/54562970/Molly_Bloom_-_Association_of_Disparities_of_Food_Security_and_Child_Abuse.pdf
Buchbinder, S.B., Shanks, N.H. & Kite, B. (2019). Introduction to health care management, 4th Ed. Jones & Bartlett. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1284156567
Buchbinder, S.B., Shanks, N. H., Buchbinder, D., & Kite, B. (Eds). (2022). Cases in health care management 2nd Ed. Jones & Bartlett. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1284180395
Buchbinder, S.B., Shanks, N.H., Rogers, R.K. (2026). Introduction to health care management, 5th Ed. Jones & Bartlett. https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Health-Management-Sharon-Buchbinder-dp-1284276104/dp/1284276104
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What are child abuse and neglect?
Leeb, R.T., Paulozzi, L.J., Melanson, C., Simon, Thomas R., Arias, I. (2008, January). Uniform definitions for public health and recommended data elements. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/child-abuse-neglect/communication-resources/CM_Surveillance-a.pdf
Congress. gov (2025) H.R.2489 — 119th Congress (2025-2026). Hunger-free future act of 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2489/text/ih?overview=closed&format=xml
Maryland Food Bank https://mdfoodbank.org/
Ryan, G. (1978). Extreme food behavior in abusive families. Child Abuse & Neglect, 2(2): 117-122. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0145213478900145
Rosenberg, T., Lahav, Y., Ginzburg, K. (2023). Child abuse and eating disorder symptoms: Shedding light on the contribution of identification with the aggressor. Child Abuse & Neglect, 135, 105988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105988
Snook, L., et al., (2024). The risk of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases following exposure to childhood maltreatment: A retrospective cohort study using UK primary care data. Heliyon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40493
Stuckey, M. (2023). The container victory garden. Harper Celebrate. https://www.harpercollinsfocus.com/harper-celebrate/the-container-victory-garden/
The White House. (2025, April 3). National child abuse prevention month, 2025: Proclamation. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/national-child-abuse-prevention-month-2025/
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Characteristics of SNAP households: FY 2019. https://www.fns.usda.gov/research/snap/characteristics-snap-households-fy-2019
Walls, J. (2014, June 1). Ezra Pound’s stay at St. Elizabeths. https://boundarystones.weta.org/2014/05/01/ezra-pounds-stay-st-elizabeths
Weekend Backpacks https://www.weekendbackpacks.org/
Fun fact: one of my father’s fellow residents at St Elizabeths was Ezra Pound, the traitorous poet who claimed insanity to be admitted (he wasn’t).
A cousin told me years later my grandmother and mother had a huge falling out after my grandmother saw her hit me.
HEARTBREAKING. I know it happens. I was victimized by my crazy father....and I served on a volunteer board assisting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. America is NOT the great country some want to think it is. Well done essay and valuable information.
Sharon, So sorry to hear about the hungry nights in your childhood. So thankful for your siblings. I have a friend who did that to her kid and now she has an eating disorder and has an odd habit of under-eating. Definitely a huge problem! So grateful you brought this to light. Very important work!