Globally, food insecurity is a significant contextual aspect of childhood. About 850 million people were undernourished worldwide during the period 2006 to 2008, including 129.6 million people, or 10 percent of the population, in China (FAO 2011:45‐46). Implications of food insecurity for children's schooling in developing country contexts are poorly understood. Analyses of a survey of children from 100 villages in northwest China show that long‐term undernourishment and food insecurity strike the poorest disproportionately, but not exclusively; long‐term undernourishment matters for literacy via early achievement; and, after adjusting for socioeconomic status, long‐term undernourishment, and prior achievement, food insecure children have significantly lower literacy scores.