Ballooning lunch debt is a problem for families and schools across the country. And it's evidence of a broken school lunch system that uses students’ needs as collateral to leverage money from parents.

For 17 years, physicians, nurse practitioners and pediatric residents at our hospital, and presently, at more than 80 locations throughout the region, have been participating in Reach Out and Read of Greater Philadelphia (www.reachoutandreadphilly.org), a simple yet profound way to harness the power

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is one of the fastest-growing US cities with economic opportunities for businesses. We jumped to the top of polls for the best cities to start a business in 2015 and have maintained top rankings ever since.

The nonprofit LIFT Orlando and AdventHealth have started construction on a “first of its kind” early learning center in the long-neglected West Lakes neighborhood south of Camping World Stadium, with an opening expected by August.

Low-income immigrant mothers are skipping the chance to get nutritious foods and help for their infants from a federal program because they fear deportation, or the loss of their children, according to the agencies that distribute those benefits.

Universal meals allow schools to build the program into their overall curriculum, "creating a learning lab for healthy eating and a mealtime experience where every kid is equal and enjoys their meals together," according to Hunger Free Vermont, which says nearly a quarter of schools in the

The proposed bill follows an NBC News investigation that found at least 11 public housing residents had died of carbon monoxide poisoning since 2003.

Kaiser is investing $200 million in low-interest loans for affordable housing nationwide. This may be part of a growing national trend of health maintenance organizations investing in housing to improve community health.

Child poverty in the U.S. could be cut in half over the next 10 years with a few simple steps, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The cost would be high — at least $90 billion a year.

We beef up law enforcement to attack crime, devote more funding to try and improve inadequate schools and tackle health disparities by getting more people to the doctor. But what if Baltimore could solve all of its persistent social problems by getting rid of poverty?

When children get sick from poor living conditions inside their rundown apartments, they miss school. And when 95 percent of students of one school live in the same apartment complex—where evictions are routine and black mold is rampant—classrooms are often left empty.

In 2016, the health system teamed with Spartanburg Community College and the National Center for Construction Education and Research, a nonprofit that provides global training and certification. Together, the three entities began offering construction skills training to area residents.

Typhus, tuberculosis, and other illnesses are spreading quickly through camps and shelters.

In a recently published report called “A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty” from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, its co-authors suggest policy changes that they claim could cut child poverty in half in just 10 years.

Join us for an examination of how cross-sector data sharing initiatives are being used to tackle tough public health problems.

This week, the Food Research & Action Center in Washington, D.C., published its annual School Breakfast Scorecard, analyzing school breakfast participation throughout the country for the 2017-2018 school year. Here are six things to know from the report.

Recently, several of the BUILD communities approached us with a seemingly straightforward question about how many housing inspectors other cities have to enforce their rental codes and protect residents from unsafe housing.

A glossary for the emerging Democratic health care debate.

Featuring Ellen Childs, PhD, from Boston University School of Public Health and Vaughan Rees, PhD, from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

A new collaboration of San Francisco Bay Area foundations and businesses is raising $540 million to tackle the region’s affordable housing crisis.

A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person’s health and how much they need the social safety net. It’s time the government’s big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.

When plans to develop affordable housing units in San Bernadino hit a funding roadblock, Dignity Health committed a $1.2 million bridge loan to help fill the gap. But the health system didn't stop there.

The State of Arizona’s Medicaid agency (AHCCCS) recognizes the vital importance of safe, decent and affordable housing to health.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Tuesday announced $3 million in grants to 13 community organizations that address things like housing, hunger and other societal factors that affect someone’s health.

These programs, available at 10 Wichita middle and high schools so far, include extended serving times in cafeterias, grab-and-go breakfasts from carts or kiosks, and “second-chance breakfast,” in which students are offered breakfast after homeroom or first period.