The federal government’s flood of billions of dollars in pandemic relief aid in 2021 — including expanded Child Tax Credit, stimulus checks, and unemployment insurance — helped lift millions of families out of poverty. That same year, child poverty declined in half to 5.2% — the lowest on record since 2011, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes into account additional expenses and government assistance programs not considered in the official poverty rate. Miguel and Margaret Rubiera, who run Emanuel Food Pantry in Durham, North Carolina, aren’t keeping tabs on the poverty rate’s rise and fall, but they know what child poverty is — they see it every day.