Being hungry has an enormous impact on a student’s ability to learn, so much so that Melcher characterizes food as a basic school supply, akin to textbooks and pencils. Kids who go to school hungry may suffer an inability to concentrate and often fall behind academically. Hungry kids are more likely to miss school because of illness, and more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, and develop behavioral problems as teenagers. They are more liable to drop out before graduation, which leads to lower paying jobs and a greater probability of being food insecure adults.
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
This program brought awareness of the childhood and family hunger issues the students face on the weekends. Large family size meal package allows the students to have consistent source of food when they have little over the weekend. Teachers and other goods occasional support staff have shared with us that this program has become transformational in the lives of their students and we appreciate the partnership with the county citizens.
- Community initiatives
- Providing community leadership training skills
- Connecting youth of various backgrounds
- Promoting a collaborative effort thru co-joint recreational and educational activities
- Coffering educational scholarship to promote better education
It takes the power of many to end childhood hunger: donors who believe in the cause, experts to diagnose the problem and innovate solutions, organizations to pool their resources and expertise, and communities to work together for change.
Join the fight to end hunger. When you feed a child, you feed her future. You make the world a better place for her and for each one of us when you give to provide much-needed food and other essentials.
Your creativity and passions are what make you, YOU. And you can use them to take an active role in ending childhood hunger.