Child Food Insecurity: Hunger in the Classrooms

1802 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The impact of poverty on education

America, despite recent economic turmoil, is still for many people an ideal place. Often referred as the land of the free and the land of opportunity, America sets herself to be the role model for the rest of the world. Yes, we have the largest economy in the world and we have a stable and legitimate government, but can we really act as the role model for other nations when over 49 million Americans are hungry? What is not often advertised about America is fact that hunger is still a very serious and real problem many Americans struggle with every day. Hunger is often associated with the homeless population, but in reality, hunger affects anyone who lives a food-insecure lifestyle. The victims of hunger come from various demographics, but an alarming number of the victims are children. Americans have different religions and opinions on many things but feeding children is something everyone can agree on. Too often, people overlook the consequences of growing up in a food-insecure household; statistics have shown that many children who live in a food-insecure household perform lower in school than their well-fed peers. The consequences of hunger do not end with just a few poor test grades; the effect hunger has on a child’s education is, in many cases, devastating and permanent. With that said, we are left with a few questions: to what extent is hunger affecting students’ performances, how is it contributing to the inequalities found in the American education system, and how are people of faith dealing with the problem of hunger?
A teacher from Maryland said, "One of my students this year came up to me during a test and said she was having trouble. When I asked her which question she needed help with, she answered, "I don't need he...

... middle of paper ...

...Spencer Foundation, Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
"Hunger in Our Schools: Share Our Strength's Teacher Report | End Child Hunger in America - No Kid Hungry." Hunger in Our Schools: Share Our Strength's Teacher Report | End Child Hunger in America - No Kid Hungry. No Kid Hungry, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Levin, Madeleine. "School Breakfast in America’s Big Cities: School Year 2010–2011." Urban School Breakfast Reports. The Food Research and Action Center, Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Massaro, Thomas. Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action. Franklin, WI: Sheed & Ward, 2000. Print
Parker, Suzi. "The Worst State for Food Insecurity Changes Course With School Breakfasts." TakePart. TakePart, 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Pringle, Peter. A Place at the Table: The Crisis of 49 Million Hungry Americans and How to Solve It. New York: PublicAffairs, 2013. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Feeding America Case Study

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the “Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet” on Feeding America’s website, in 2014 there were over 48 million Americans living in food insecure households, which included 15 million children. During the school year, these children rely on free or reduce breakfast and lunch. When the summer vacation months arrive, these children loose the security of these meals. Feeding America, working alongside the United States Department of Agriculture, provide free summer meals to these children. Unfortunately, not all children and families are aware that these programs are taking place; therefore missing out on a vital resource to help stretch their food dollars throughout the summer

    Read More

  • A Sociological Perspective On Food Insecurity

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.

    Read More

  • Child Hunger in the USA

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States is known as the wealthiest country in the world. But, there are many people that can't afford to buy food for their families, many are also homeless. “While hunger affects people of all ages, it's particularly devastating for children even short-term episodes of hunger can cause lasting damage."(“Child Nutrition Programs") Child hunger in the United States is caused by poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and food shortage; however there are many solutions to this problem like FRAC strategies, food banks, summer feeding programs, and backpack feeding programs.

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity in the USA

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food insecurity does not discriminate; it reaches many segments of society (Whitney, DeBruyne, Pinna, & Rolfes, 2007). Even through closely related to poverty, not all that have food insecurities are in poverty. Often it is the working poor that are hit the hardest. The working poor are a group that despite having a job, there income is too low to meet their need or that of their family. Most of the working poor (56%) live in families with children, so that the poverty of these workers affects many others as well (Problems Facing the Working Poor, Kim 1999). Many lower to middle class families will temporarily struggle with food insecurity at various times during the year. For these families government assistance may not immediately available. Appling for Supplemental Nutrition Assistanc...

    Read More

  • Hunger: A Recurring Theme in Multicultural Literature

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hunger was a recurring theme that was depicted in all of the readings and movies that were read and viewed throughout the course of American Multicultural Literature. The era of hunger ranged from the 1930s in Angela’s Ashes (McCourt, 1996) to 2003 In America (Sheridan, 2004) and from Afghanistan in The Kite Runner (Hosseini, 2003) and Osama (Barmak, 2003) to Ireland in Angela’s Ashes (McCourt, 1996) to the United States in the remaining text and videos. Hunger, or the modern term ‘food insecure,’ continues to affect millions of people worldwide and leads to education, socioeconomic and health issues.

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity and the Low Income Family

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.

    Read More

  • School Lunches Are Unhealthy

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.

    Read More

  • Growing Up Empty by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.

    Read More

  • Hunger in America: A Comprehensive Analysis

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary film “A Place at the Table” is an analysis of the issue of hunger in America which focuses on the troubles of three people from different parts of the country who struggle to find adequate nutrition in their daily lives. Barbie the single Philadelphian mother really showed me just how bad some people have it. People that are starving in America I now realize after watching this documentary film are very different from people who are starving in African or Asian countries. The majority of people in America and the world most likely view someone that is starving as someone that is very skinny and lifeless. When in actuality it is different. The majority children in America are not literally being robbed of food like in third world countries, they are being denied nutritional foods

    Read More

  • Improving Nutrition in School Lunches

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...

    Read More

  • Open Campus Lunches In High Schools

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Schools become the ‘last frontier’ for hungry kids.” usatoday.com). Thus, many students do not carry the proper balance of nutrition through school that conceals the students indoors through the school day. Students are in a constant battle for motivation in the classroom atmosphere that does not consider a student’s pace while learning. Today, students in community schools from Michigan seldom use open campus privileges. (Johnson, Adrian. “Should high schools have open campus for lunch?” www.mlive.com). Students’ are required to stay on campus to abstain from the increase of truancy leading to missing instructional

    Read More

  • The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

    298 Words  | 1 Pages

    The new standards given to school districts to follow and oblige to have swiftly changed after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed making it healthier for students to eat both breakfast and lunch. This article mentioned certain limitations that many schools had to officially make on what they had to serve their students as well as the costs of these changes. Certain limitations included certain amount of fruits and vegetables, fat-free milk, replacement of whole grains, and they had to set limits on the amount of calories and sodium in their foods.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hunger In America

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to No Kid Hungry, “1 out of 5 children go to school every day hungry.” This issue of childhood hunger in America is an issue that needs to be more addressed than it is. Sure, there is a lot one can do through organizations. There is donating, volunteering, and just talking about it, but not enough people are doing it. It is not enough to try and decrease the amount of children that are going hungry. It is not enough to help these families who cannot feed their children. It is not enough to end hunger. We maybe be able to stop it, and the answer may be looking towards school.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hunger And Hunger

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    “America is the richest country in the world. And yet tonight, thousands of your neighbors will go to bed hungry. It may be your child's schoolmate who is undernourished and has difficulty learning on an empty stomach. Or it could be a co-worker, a working mother whose low-wage job doesn't make ends meet. Perhaps it's an elderly neighbor who has to make a decision whether to delay filling a prescription or buying groceries. The faces of hunger are as broad as the faces of America." ~ David Nasby, General Mills (H.U.N.G.E.R).

    Read More

  • Impact Of Childhood Hunger Essay

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    When most people think of where a hungry child lives, they often think of a child that lives in a poor, developing country. They often don’t think of a child who lives in one of the most developed countries in the world, like the United States. Childhood hunger impacts one out of every five kids in the U.S. That’s about 15.8 million children who go hungry. There are some programs targeted to end childhood hunger, but hunger continues to negatively impact the physical and mental well-being of children.

    Read More

More about Child Food Insecurity: Hunger in the Classrooms

Open Document