Poor Kids

Childhood Poverty in the U.S.

Part of the Series: Frontline

FRONTLINE spent months following three young girls who are growing up against the backdrop of their families' struggles against financial ruin. At a time when one in five American kids lives below the poverty line, Poor Kids is an is an intimate portrait of the economic crisis as it's rarely seen, through the eyes of children.

Kaylie, Jasmin and Brittany don't live in families that choose to relax and collect welfare, food stamps and charity. They have parents who desperately want to work and provide.The fact they can't find a way to do that tears away at them, and more subtly at their children. Kaylie, who is 9, lives in a cheap motel because her mother couldn't afford rent on a house. Brittany belongs to the school "nutrition club," which gives children a packet of food every Friday. It has to last until Monday. Kaylie talks about feeling hungry all the time, and how most of their stuff was auctioned off when they couldn't pay the storage rental fee.The encouraging part is these kids haven't lost all their dreams. But they're haunted, by poverty, in ways no kid should have to be.