In October, Texas launched a No Kid Hungry Campaign. It is part the nation’s hunger program called Share OurStrength. In Share Our Strength’s mission statement they claim, “Share Our Strength’s goal is to end childhood hunger in America. Working with others, we believe we can do this by 2015.” No Kid Hungry (NKH) has three levels to end childhood hunger: Live, Learn, and Play. They provide healthy foods in the Live program through food stamps and WIC to poor families who would otherwise not be able to afford it. In the Learn element of the program, they provide breakfast and lunches at schools and teach kids about nutrition. In the Play section, snacks are provided after school, and during the summer low income kids have meals brought to them.
Texas has an extremely high “food insecurity” rate. Food security is defined as the availability of food and one’s access to it. By providing meals, at school and at home, kid’s food security levels rise. They know when the next meal will be there, and that one is coming. The program offers kids from all incomes levels free breakfast so that kids won’t feel singled out at school for eating there.
I think this is an amazing program Texas is joining. We tend to be on the low ends of all bad statistics in the nation. It’s time we do something to help raise our standing in something as important as child hunger. Kids all over the country don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Giving them a meal helps them focus in school. Doing better in school means more high school graduates. This may be a jump, but making sure our kids aren’t hungry could equal a higher college enrollment rate. I say bravo Texas on jumping on a wonderful program.
This post is in response to; Ms. Murken's post entitled Childhood Hunger. In her post she talks about the new national initiative called Share our Strength which our great state has adopted and re-named the No Kid Hungry Campaign. I know the name could be a little more original, I am not sure who they hire to come up with the names of these programs but they sure could use a little sprucing up.
ReplyDeleteThe "meat and potatoes" of the plan (no pun intended) is this; that there are too many hungry children in our state and nation and we plan on providing free breakfasts for them as well as after school snacks and meals in the summers and breaks in order to try and increase their level of “food security” I applaud their efforts however misplaced I feel them to be. I was one of the recipients of the original "Free School Lunches" program launched by former President Clinton. I am thankful to have had it however, I am not sure if I agree with the way it is implemented.
This is because I believe in the "teach people to fish" school of thought and not necessarily the “give them the fish" school.
I tend to believe the problem of childhood hunger is just a symptom of a much greater and graver illness in our state and nation. The sickness of too many children being born into under educated, under prepared households, of chronic joblessness and non-self reliance. These problems are like a cancer eating away at our very health as a nation. The clear result of which is the number of hungry children in our nation.
This does not mean I do not support making sure that these children have something nutritious to eat. I do in fact, but it is only putting a band-aid on the bleeding ulcer that needs the real attention. We need to be proactive in the fight by taking preventative measures of ensuring that our education system is working and not just failing the less fortunate by allowing them to drop out and have children they shouldn’t especially when they do not have a job or a way to support the children. It is not only a disservice to the person we are allowing to drop-out but their children as well and society as a whole because we all end up paying to raise their children with programs like this.
I feel we really need to improve our job market domestically to give under-educated persons more of a chance at making a living instead of just throwing welfare at them. I understand everyone makes decisions in life and sometimes we live to regret these decisions for instance, the decision to drop out of high school is a personal decision and I'm sure it’s one that most who make it come to regret (I know I did) when they realize their prospects of employment are severely limited for the rest of their lives barring good-fortune and a whole lot of hard work and effort to overcome the bad decision they made as a teen-ager.
As far as the government program is concerned if we devoted some of these resources to vocational services for the children’s parents who are either un-employed or under-employed they may be able to better themselves and their children in turn.
Overall I feel Ms. Murken had a very upbeat and idealistic view on the situation, especially the part about the program possibly increasing the number of kids enrolling in College. Her view strikes me as being overly optimistic to say the least, there are kids who will go to College and those who won't. Income level has a lot to do with it but not everything; I know plenty of rich kids that feel College is just not right for them. Just like a lot of poor kids think the same. Those who understand the importance of College will inevitably seek out a higher education even if they take a non-traditional path there (like me). Bottom line is this though we need jobs and personal responsibility in this country now! If we had more of these two things there would be much, much less hungry children out there.
Sincerely, Rider on the Storm
My colleague, Allison wrote a post about “Childhood Hunger”. She brings up the Texas campaign which is a part of Share Our Strength’s national No Kid Hungry Campaign.
ReplyDeleteSince Texas is one of the states with the highest food insecurity rate in the nation, so the state should do something better to solve this problem. Texas also has the high percentage of uninsured children and birth rate in the nation. Therefore, “The purpose of the campaign is to end food insecurity in children by 2015. Food insecurity is when a person consistently faces hunger or lives in fear of starvation.”
I agree with Allison that this is an amazing program Texas is joining. This is something we can do to stop children hunger. Hunger is a problem to the children in our state. “More than 1.8 million children in Texas are at risk of hunger” Ludwig said. That’s a really big number so No Kid Hungry Campaign must be doing well to stop before that number increases. Kids need nutritious meals to survive, to learn well. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially to children. Children need breakfast to develop their brains, and to have better standardize test score, better behavior at school. Therefore, the campaign will provide food to all kids from incomes levels at school and even at home, which is very good program to support all poor families with low incomes.
The program is not only providing kids healthy meal, but also teaching them about nutrition goes along. Kids need to know how important a meal is. Breakfasts, lunches and snacks are provided at school and even during the summer.
I think this is a very helpful program so far since it helps all hungry children in our state. To make this project even better, they ask more people to get involved in distributing meals to more children. Texas is a growing state. There are a lot of people moving in, so we should solve this problem before many more problems occur.
Of course, No Kid Hungry Campaign is not like the best solution to solve the problems; but at least, it helps Texas to reduce the number of uninsured children and families who have low incomes and are not able to afford it. Texas is doing a great job to help children right now and builds a better future for our children.
In Response to "No Kid Hungry"
ReplyDeleteI would like to take this opportunity to both commend Ms. Murken and throw a couple comments her way as well. I can appreciate the initiative which Texas has joined in feeding kids at school for free, however this can lead to a bigger problem on the home front. My son gets free breakfast at his school because more than 50% percent of the students at his school live in a family who lives below the national poverty level and I commend the school for doing this. But, if they were to give away free breakfast and lunch to kids who could not afford it, then even the families that could afford it would try to find a way to get if for their kids as well.
We make a pretty good living and I don't mind paying a little more for my kid to eat lunch at school because we can afford it. I would think though if the school was going to offer a free lunch there are the families teetering on the bubble that would find a way to qualify. Also, I believe every child should be afforded the right to go to school and be treated equally, but kids are the meanest little things on earth when they see the chance to make fun another kid or hurt someone’s feelings. On the other front, if a parent truly needs their kid to eat for free what are they doing to remedy the situation? I know the job market is horrid right now, but if your kid needs to eat, then we have to make some sacrifices along the way. Don't we as a state throw enough money toward the needy and less fortunate without taking more from the ones who do have means?
Ms. Murken, thank you for bringing this article to light and I hope the kids who really need the free lunch get them and those that don’t need it never find a way to take advantage of the system, but I already know the sneaky ones will find a way.
My colleague, Allison wrote a post about “Childhood Hunger”. There is an Organization called the No Kid Hungry Campaign which helps feed kids that have parents that have low income levels. Of course this is a great idea but how could they raise this money and fund this by 2015? It says it has 3 levels to accomplish this goal which are Live, learn, and play as simple as this may sound it could actually be the great seed to get out of the recession. This is because our kids are the future and if we provide them the correct nutrition they have happier healthy brains that could perform better for the future society but once again providing this organization with money would be difficult.
ReplyDeleteStudents at public schools already get this benefit from tax payers where underprivileged kids get their breakfast and lunches free because there parents didn't have enough income which I personally think is unfair. The reason why I have food to eat is because my parents worked hard. Why would we have to take care of kids because their parents didn't work hard. I know its the moral thing to do but lazy people shouldn't be carried and really it's too bad that their bad parenting has lead their kids into their world. Why would the income kids have meals brought to them during the summer low? That would be money lost to the kids that already have rich parents it's because to see that would hurt society much more. Like the students at my Round Rock High school you wouldn't know who had free lunch and free breakfast because we all go under the same protocol. It's all about trying to keep things seem fair when there really not so no one makes a big fuss.