What Can We Do To Eliminate Food Insecurity?
One of the most important issues Fairfield County, Connecticut is grappling with today is food insecurity. What is food insecurity you may ask? Food insecurity is when families struggle to know when and where their next nutritious meal will come from. According to a recent report titled, Hunger Lives Here, from the Fairfield County Community Foundation, more than one in ten families in Connecticut have struggled to find their next meal. Who would ever think that in one of the wealthiest counties in America, people would be suffering from food insecurity?
Unfortunately, Fairfield County has experienced high unemployment rates which have forced many families into poverty. Due to a lack of knowledge about food assistance programs, many people are unaware of what programs are being offered in their area. These important safety net programs include: SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), WIC, (Women, Infants, and Children) and the federally-funded School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. Below are brief descriptions of the above mentioned programs:
- SNAP– Individuals receive an EBT card, which allows them to purchase specific food items. The EBT card looks like a debit card so it is not easily recognized as federal aid.
- WIC– Pregnant mothers and mothers with children are provided with monthly checks to help purchase nutritious foods for their families.
- School Lunch and Breakfast Programs-These programs provide free or reduced meals to low income students.
In a report conducted by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), 14.8% of children in Connecticut are living under the poverty line and 13.4% of households are food insecure. In Fairfield County, about 35,000 children live in a food insecure home. Many of these children receive most of their daily nutrition from the federally-funded school breakfast and school lunch program. However, despite the fact that many students qualify for a free or reduced price meal, only about half of students in Connecticut are participating in the School Breakfast program.
You might be asking, but what can we do to help more students get access to the important nutrition they need? One way is to implement programs like universal breakfast in the classroom (BIC).
BIC is a program where students eat breakfast at no cost during the first 10-15 minutes of the school day. Studies have shown that when students eat breakfast, they are able to perform better in school; their attendance improves, and they feel better overall. Not only are students benefiting from this program in districts across the country, but teachers are finding that students are better able to focus in class and aren’t making as many trips to the nurse’s office.
Connecticut Education Association (CEA) President Sheila Cohen has helped bring statewide attention to the issue of child hunger and stated that, “Connecticut needs to stand up, do the right thing, and feed our children because hunger hurts”. Educators understand the important connection between proper nutrition and academic achievement. However, more work needs to be done in Connecticut if hunger is to be eliminated.
The NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN) has been working for the last four years to increase the number of student participating in the school breakfast program through a Breakfast in the Classroom Initiative. Since this program started, NEA HIN and their partners have helped feed more than 70,000 additional students school breakfast. This has been no small undertaking and was accomplished with the assistance and support of educators and support staff working together for their students.
To learn more about Breakfast in the Classroom program and how you can start an alternative breakfast program at your school, download NEA HIN’s Start School With Breakfast Guide. Or, leave us a comment about your school’s breakfast program or post to our Facebook or Twitter.
So—please take a stand and join us today to help end hunger across America. By working together, we can make great strides in reducing food insecurity in any community—large or small, high income or not—and help eliminate the fear in families and their children about when they will have their next meal.
Posted by
on January 29, 2014