Childhood Hunger Affects Education

When children are hungry they have trouble concentrating in school. Share Our Strength recently released its’ 2012 survey of America’s public school teachers (K-8) reporting on their experiences with hunger in the classroom.  The results are astounding:

• A majority of teachers say “most” or “a lot” of their students rely on school meals as their primary source of nutrition.
• More than 75% of teachers say that the U.S. should make childhood hunger a “top” or “high” priority
• A majority of teachers say they have kids in their classes who regularly come to school hungry. 80% of those who see hungry kids say these children are coming to school hungry at least once a week.
• More than 8 in 10 teachers say breakfast helps students concentrate, contributes to better academic performance and leads to healthier students with fewer headaches and fewer stomach aches.

Imagine being a hungry child. You may leave for school with your stomach growling from the night before. When you arrive at school, breakfast is waiting for you and you can’t wait to sink your teeth into it; however, you’re rushed because your first class is starting. Most of your meal is left behind.

As class goes on, you begin to feel that familiar feeling of hunger. The teacher is speaking and you’re trying to focus, but your stomach hurts. You promised you parents that you’d get better grades, so you try with all your might to listen. All you can think about is getting something to eat and it doesn’t matter what it is. You ask to get a drink maybe that will hold you over.

During lunch, the line for food seems that it takes forever. When you finally get your tray and sit down, you hear the other children complain, “Yuck, look at this meatloaf. I can’t eat that.” You hope that someone will share their food with you. You’d be happy to eat it.

This happens every day in public schools all over the United States, but you can help. Visit and Share the Hunger in Our Schools infograph, information and tell Congress to protect nutrition programs.

You can also get more information, take the pledge and easily share it with your Facebook friends from the No Kid Hungry Facebook page.

This is not a compensated post, rather information that I need to share because of its importance.