Dear Educators,
As our plates are overflowing with responsibilities, there is a rising need that we must be cognizant about. In recent years, childhood hunger has been on the rise. The eligibility rate for free/reduced lunch programs has skyrocketed to nearly 16 million students in the country. Within the state of Washington, 436,700 students (42.3%) received free/reduced lunch during the 2009-2010 school year. These are just the students that have been identified. There is no way of telling how many other students come from food insecure families. As educators we can play a role in helping identify these students and connect them with services.
Along with identification, we can also help inform students and their families about meal programs that run during the summer months when school is out of session. Although there are over 16 million students receiving free/reduced lunches during the school year, only about 3 million of these students use the summer meal programs. Largely this decrease in meal services is caused by lack of information. Informing families of where meal programs are located during the summer months is a small but impactful action that all educators can take.
Hunger affects all aspects of a child’s life. When basic needs are not met, this is the sole focus of the individual. Numerous studies have been conducted to look at the effects of hunger on both development and academics. Although the results vary, the bottom line is that hunger has strong links to lower academic achievement, higher stress levels, and chronic illness. “Studies indicate that children whose address has been influx for more than a year are subject to developmental delays at four times the rate of their peers, are twice as likely to repeat a grade, and are identified with learning disabilities twice as often.” (Holgersson-Shorter, 2010) Along with these academic and developmental delays that can be associated with hunger, there are also links between behavior issues within the classroom. Sometimes a child that is malnourished may act out with disruptive behaviors, but often the opposite is also true. These children can be withdrawn. Studies have connected hunger and depression and anxiety. As educators, we must be aware of our students’ situations and conscious of the effects they will have on the students. We need to be diligent in observing behaviors of our students and act in a proactive manner if signs of hunger or homelessness surface.
Addressing the number of individuals receiving free/reduced lunches is not the only battle that our nation is fighting in relation to children and food. Currently there is great controversy surrounding school meals and their nutrition value. For years, there has been minimal regulation on the food served. Historically these meals have been filled with high levels of saturated fat, sodium, sugar and many other unhealthy processed foods. In 2010, congress passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act were aims to reduce childhood obesity and eradicate childhood hunger. This Act requires schools to provide students with nutritious foods, and reduce fats, sodium, and sugars. The new regulations will require districts to make many changes to their current lunch programs. Though these changes stand to impact our children in a positive way, there is still much that can be done to help improve both the nutritional foods that our children receive and level of activity they receive. The strongest thin g that we can do reduce childhood obesity and nutrition is to be good role models of both healthy diets and exercise.
As educators we are change agents, therefore, support the fight to end childhood hunger by 2015.Sincerely,
Alicia Lowen and Kelli Soccorsy
