Introduction Throughout the year, the U.S government collects data on people who are food insecure, so they can provide resource to those people efficiently. In 2008, the data from The U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed a remarkable change in the number of people who were food insecure in comparison to previous years and found that around 49.1 million people lived in food-insecure homes that also included 16.7 million children (Khan, Pinckney, Keeney, Frankowski & Carney, 2010). While only 11.1% of people in 2007 were food insecure, about 14.5% of people became food insecure in 2012 (Coleman-Jensen, Nord & Singh, 2013). In North Carolina, one in five children go hungry each day and one in four of these children are under the age of five (BackPack Buddies, 2014). According to National School Lunch Act (Communication Division, 2013), students can have free or reduced lunch Monday through Friday if their family's earning is at or below 130% of the poverty level, as per Federal poverty guidelines. In 2010-2011, 53.9% students in North Carolina were on free or reduced lunch. This number rose to 56% in the year 2011-12 (Kids Count data center, 2012). Non-profit organizations such as “Inter-Faith Food Shuttle” program provide assistance with food donated by volunteers and local farmers market. These programs are designed to put a stop to hunger and provide resources to those who need it most. The “BackPack Buddies” of “Inter-Faith Food Shuttle” program is specifically designed for children who have their last hot meal at school for Friday's lunch and have no food resource during the weekends. With parent approval, school counselors provide students with backpack full of food items on Friday afternoons. Insecurities from limited... ... middle of paper ... ...rity: Could school food supplementation help break cycles of intergenerational transmission of social inequalities?. Pediatrics, 126(6), 1174 -1181. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-3574 Southern Education Foundation. (2013, OCTOBER). Trends 2003-2011: Persistent gaps in learning by income. Retrieved from http://www.southerneducation.org/getattachment/0bc70ce1-d375-4ff6-8340-f9b3452ee088/A-New-Majority-Low-Income-Students-in-the-South-an.aspx Spencer, J. (2012). Make food drives come alive!. Retrieved from http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet.aspx?ArtMID=888&ArticleID=111 Strahan, D. B., L'Esperance, M., & Hoose, J. V. (2010). Promoting harmony: young adolescent development and classroom practices. (3 ed.). Westerville, Ohio: National Middle School Association. Wormeli, R. (2001). Meet me in the middle, becoming an accomplished middle-level teacher. Stenhouse Pub.
Food insecurity is one of the major social problems that we have in our world today. The concern about this problem is the increasing number of people that are beginning to experience hunger more often. “While hunger has long been a public health concern in developing countries, it has received varying degrees of attention in the United States, most notable during the 1930s and 1960s” (Poppendieck 1992). In addition to lack of food, there are consequences that follow. People, especially children, who suffer from food deprivation also undergo some health issues such as malnutrition and obesity, which leads to more health care and hospitalizations. “In the early 1980s, most reports of hunger involved families with children, the elderly, the unskilled and unemployed youth, the mentally ill, the homeless and minorities” (Brown 1992; Nestle and Guttmacher 1992). However, a particular ethnic group that is greatly affected by food insecurities are the Hispanic...
Nelson Mandela once said, "Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom” (Make Poverty History, 2005). Gwinnett county is third in the country when it comes to a high poverty rate, with 14% of the population living below poverty (Family Promise of Gwinnet County, 2013). As an educator it is important to familiarize with the county of which one is to teach in, and poverty is an issue in Gwinnett county. One must understand the affects of poverty on children's learning, how to recognize children of poverty and how to help those students, and what rights those children have to an education.
The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in regard to the most effective way to close the gap. The gap appears before children enter kindergarten and it persists into adulthood (Jencks 1998). Since 1970, the gap has decreased about 40 percent, but has steadily grown since. Theories suggest the Black-White achievement gap is created by a multitude of social, cultural, and economic factors as well as educational opportunities and/or learning experiences. Factors such as biased testing, discrimination by teachers, test anxiety among black students, disparities between blacks and whites in income or family structure, and genetic and cultural differences between blacks and whites have all been evaluated as explanations for the Black-White achievement gap (Farkas 2004). The research that follows will elaborate on these factors as they affect the decline in academic performance of black males—particularly the literacy achievement of black males.
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.
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.
Nelsen, J., Lott, L., & Glenn, S. (2000). Positive discipline in the classroom developing mutual respect, cooperation, and responsibility in your classrooms, 3rd ed. (p. 120). Roseville, Califonia: Prima Publishing.
Funding inequalities has been an issue from past to present, especially in the low-income communities. In fact, students in urban areas with less funding have low attendance, score lower on standardize testing, a low graduation rate. Also subjected to outdated textbooks, old dilapidated buildings, Students in the inner cities need to compete with their suburban and wealthy counter-parts for this reason funding inequalities must end and more money should be directed to these communities from: federal, state, and local governments.
Why are there families with children that go all weekend without a meal while our grocery stores are overflowing with food, and our pantries at home have more than we need? If more people were educated about the reality of hunger in East Tennessee, then more people would be inclined to help resolve the problem. Through education this issue can be eradicated. There are ways to better inform East Tennesseans about the realities that plague our poverty stricken population that are ultimately avoidable. Volunteering and making donations to the food pantries and organizations in the area are two of the best ways to support the less fortunate who need aid. In East Tennessee, hunger is a much larger problem than most people know and could be reduced if more people were educated about it, new ways were found to promote feeding the hungry, people volunteered and donated.
There has been an increase in the hunger and starvation rates all over the world. It is documented that nearly one billion people suffer from hunger and related illnesses each and every day (Eggebeen & Lichter, 12). In the United States of America, many people have been known to suffer from hunger. The most people who suffer from starvation and hunger are the low class and some middle class income earners. This has caused so many deaths, and it has been one of the factors that has caused so many deaths and increased mortality rates in the United States. According to research conducted by the household food security in the United States, they found out that approximately fifteen percent of all the households in America suffered from moderate
Many people here in America are hardworking and resourceful, but an insecure economy can have a long-lasting effect on a diverse group of people. One of the greatest manifestations of this is the inability to consistently afford a healthy diet. In a report by done by researchers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ‘in 2011, 14.9 percent or 17.9 million people in America were food insecure (Coleman-Jensen, Nordic, Andrews, & Carlson, 2012).’ Although many different organizations such as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or the SNAP food stamp program has set out to eradicate hunger, by giving assistance to low income participants, to help them afford food, it does still exist in many different people’s lives, at one point or another. While many other underdeveloped countries have harder times with hunger, many of them, due to socioeconomic difficulties, hunger still causes many problems for different people in America.
Unfortunately for impoverished and minority students, this is where they fall short. According to Brookings.edu, Schools based in communities primarily composed of low-income and minority students have fewer necessary instructional resources. Students in these communities and social class tend to lack such materials as books, core curriculum, computers, and even quality teachers. Teachers working in schools servicing low-income and minority students are usually inexperienced or underqualified. In addition to this, these teachers are required to teach significantly larger class sizes. Many of these schools don’t even offer the necessary math and science classes needed to advance to college (Hammond). Completing college is also a challenge for individuals who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Just as in grammar schools and high schools, the quality of education within colleges need to improve. Relying on one’s own knowledge is the key in receiving upward mobility because of the financial obstacles associated with attending a University. The article “Economic Inequality and Higher Education”
Throughout the nation, education inequality affects many minority students that have low-income which reinforces the disparity between the rich and the poor. The amount of children that have a socioeconomic background of poverty in the United States is estimated to be 32.4 million (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2011). Since many of these children are from
Being hungry makes an average human being unfocused and emotionally unstable. For children, being hungry is worse because they lack the nutrition to grow and learn. Children will be unable to focus on school because they are too hungry to concentrate on anything else. Most families in poverty struggle to feed their children and can’t afford to buy nutritional food and instead purchase food that is the cheapest with the great amount. Families that do not make enough income rely on food stamps. However, families that make a little, emphasis on the little, over the standard income are disqualified for the program. In other words, they are stuck; they make too little to provide enough food for the table and yet make too much to receive food stamps.
Currently, relatively few urban poor students go past the ninth grade. The graduation rates in large comprehensive inner-city schools are abysmally low. In fourteen such New York City Schools, for example, only 10 percent to 20 percent of ninth graders in 1996 graduated four years later. Despite the fact that low-income individuals desperately need a college degree to find decent employment, only 7 percent obtain a bachelors degree by age twenty-six. So, in relation to ...
More and more people are falling into insular poverty. Insular poverty is rapidly growing, in our nation, into a huge problem today. It’s affecting student’s education causing them to work so much harder than the average American. To get a higher education in a poverty stricken home is almost impossible. Research is showing that poverty negatively impacts students during their educational