Child Poverty

Allegheny County saw a year to year percentage decrease in childhood poverty from 2019-2021; however, according to Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, there was a 4.9 percent increase in January 2022 from December 2021, an increase from 12.1 to 17 percent*. For Black children, the population represented, that rate increased from a high of 19.5 to 25 percent. The decrease was significantly due to the federal government's Child Tax Credit, made available during the pandemic.

According to Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race (2019), Black women and men in other cities have better health, income, employment, and educational outcomes than Pittsburgh's Black residents. This information would lead one to believe the childhood poverty would correlate with these findings.

Childhood poverty affects the cognitive skills of children impacting their ability to learn which can have a downstream effect on the region’s resident workforce.

Flourishing Communities, in partnership with local schools, wants to make sure that all public school children, at each grade level, can get the nutrition needed to aid their ability to learn. For high school students we will give them the training and skills necessary to not only eat well at home, but to even invoke an entrepreneurial interest. By partnering high school culinary students with local chefs, we will help foster job opportunities for them or spark an interest in furthering their education in the field of culinary. We also aim to offer healthy culinary support for adults so that by also addressing the issue of food accessibility, households caught in the cycle of poverty can finally break the cycle and enjoy healthier lifestyles.

Child Poverty

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