Education, housing remain challenges for New Orleans families. Over 30,000 former New Orleans trailer home residents found homes paid for by the government after Hurricane Katrina. But the funding for shelter runs out in March and recovery is lacking in many areas, city and local officials say. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised help for survivors in finding permanent residence, but hasn’t even begun the effort in Lousiana, according to reports. Among other recovery concerns are loss of schooling among youth and higher rates of illness among young Katrina survivors.

More children are going to bed hungry. Close to 700,000 U.S. children lived in households that had a hard time putting food on the table at some point in 2007, says a new federal report. The number of children who went to bed hungry is the highest since 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report on food security. The report also showed that those 691,000 children lived in homes where families had to eat non-balanced meals and low-cost food, or even skip meals because of a lack of money. The number of families struggling to feed children adequately rose 50 percent from 430,000 children in 2006. Nearly 36.2 million children and adults struggled to get food in 2007, according to the report, up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. Two thirds of them – 11.9 million people – changed their eating habits by eating low-cost foods, participated in federal food and nutrition assistance programs, ate less varied diets or obtained emergency food from pantries or emergency kitchens, according to the report. That number is up more than 40 percent since 2000. See more of the report at U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site.