Nearly one in five children under age 18 lived in poor families in 2008, according to poverty statistics released by the Census Bureau in September 2009. Though high, this statistic does not capture the full impact of the economic downturn, which is expected to drive poverty even higher in 2009. However, updated poverty statistics will not be released by the Census Bureau until next August or September. To better understand the effects of the recession on children and families, this brief examines child poverty rates in 2008 in conjunction with increases in families' use of nutrition assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps). The remainder of this brief provides a review of child poverty rates in 2008, by state, followed by a discussion of how more contemporaneous measures of economic need, specifically SNAP caseloads and unemployment rates, can shed light on expected poverty rates in 2009. The author then ranks states as having very high, high, or moderately high growth in SNAP recipients and concludes with the combined analysis summarized in table 1. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures, 2 maps, and 18 notes.)