For years I’ve watched the campaigns for improving school lunches for children from afar. I saw Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution as he set forth to ensure all children have access to good and nutritious meals, stating that it was every child’s right.  Along with her Let’s Move! campaign, Michelle Obama implemented new standards in public schools that mandated them to meet a minimum of fruit, vegetable and whole grain servings and a maximum of sodium, sugar and fat contents.

In the past year, I started to really take an interest in the availability and accessibility of fresh and nutritious meals for all families. However, when I looked into local school lunches in my area, I came across national statistics and studies that were truly staggering.

The numbers completely blew me away. Millions of families struggle with hunger – many children come to school hungry and only have their free or reduced-priced school lunches as a guaranteed meal for the day. These children do not have access to free meals during the summer.  And parents struggle with feeding and preparing their families with nutritious meals because they feel that it’s beyond their budget.

 

Thankfully there are ways for all of us to help! Whether it’s spreading the word through social media, contacting your senator, donating money or food, creating fundraisers, signing up to help teach families how to prepare healthy meals on a budget, starting a community garden, or setting up free meal site for children, there are countless ways to get involved.

The Problem:

• 48.8 million Americans, including 16.2 million children, struggle with hunger.
• 3 out of 4 teachers say their students come to school hungry.
• Food insecurity (the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food) exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.
• 25% of households with children living in large cities are food-insecure.
• 6 out of 7 low-income kids who eat a free or reduced-price school lunch during the academic year do not get a free meal during the summer.
• More than 20 million kids get a free or reduced-price school lunch on an average school day. But only 9.8 million – fewer than half — of those kids get free or reduced-price school breakfast. 

What Studies Show:

Studies show that kids who eat school breakfast:

• Have higher attendance
• Have less tardies
• Make better grades
• Are more likely to graduate high school

 

 

6. Write to your local congressman. Congress is working to reauthorize the Farm Bill, legislation that provides funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, formerly known as food stamps. Drastic cuts to SNAP are on the table and nearly half of all SNAP participants are children. If Congress cuts funding for this poverty relieving program, it will affect millions of children and families, leaving them even more vulnerable to hunger.