Sunday, June 13, 2004

More kids go hungry during summer

Federal school breakfast, lunch programs leave them without during academic break

By Alison Bethel / Washington Bureau Chief

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WASHINGTON — Stories of hunger roll off the tongues of food bank workers and other advocates for the poor like twisted nursery rhymes.

One working couple rotates which of their three children will come to the dinner table each evening.

Officials of a housing project in New Orleans notice the main office building is broken into. They investigate and discover two small children are the culprits. When asked why, one of the children answers, “My brother was hungry.”

As summer approaches, advocates for the hungry say, the problem for many children worsens — during the academic year, at least, they were regularly fed subsidized breakfasts or lunches at school.

“A lot of these kids just don’t get dinner,” said Sue Hoeffer of America’s Second Harvest. “Either their parents are working and they have to fend for themselves, or there isn’t enough food or just isn’t enough of the right kind of food.

“It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s not the parents’ fault that their children are hungry. Let’s not blame the victim. What we do know is that if a child in the family skips a meal, the parents skip more meals because a parent is not going to eat and let their kid go hungry. Food security is a direct result of economic security.”

Children represent 43 percent of the 34.9 million Americans who on any given day do not know where their next meal is coming from, despite federal school lunch programs that provide kids with free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches.

When Congress votes on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill later this summer, three major programs that greatly affect the health and well-being of poor children are expected to be renewed — food stamps, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program and the school lunch program. Although none of the programs will be cut in the new bill, it is unlikely they will see an expansion or an increase in funding.

In Michigan, 816,603 children are in the school lunch program; 179,018 are in the breakfast program. Nationally, 16 million children get subsidized lunch at school.

Also in Michigan, 323,391 children receive food stamps and 214,545 women and children participate in the WIC supplemental food program, reports the Children’s Defense Fund.

When children miss meals, say nutrition experts, their behavior changes and their concentration weakens. That results in disturbances in school and failing grades for some. And during the summer, when school lunch is unavailable, children suffer the most.

“We talk about education and the need to educate children ... but do you think by them not being able to have food we are losing some bright people in this country?” asked Agostinho Fernandes, president of Gleaners Community Food Bank, the largest in Michigan.