This morning the All-Stars that did not go to the Arkansas Teen Conference had a conference call with a researcher from the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law. The researcher was interested in food-related health issues among children in foster care, specifically malnutrition, obesity, and food insecurity. Legislation pertaining to this issue was signed into federal law in December 2010. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is designed to provide all foster youth in the U.S. with free meals during the school year. However, implementation of the act, as well as building awareness of the act among foster youth and foster families remains an issue. You can read more about it here: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Malnutrition among foster youth is, often times, looked over. Are foster parents being adequately trained to deal with youth, who are malnourished, coming into their care. How does one combat malnourishment while avoiding obesity, and attempting to modify hiding, hoarding, and stealing of food? As more attention is given to nutrition in this country, it is important to have specific knowledge about specific demographics, foster youth being one of them. Training of foster parents needs to be modified to incorporate nutrition, and ILP training should also include nutrition and cooking classes so that youth will be equipped with these skills when it is time to live on their own.