Hungry Kids: Thousands In Shelby County Don’t Have Enough To Eat

SHELBY COUNTY, AL - Some 13 million American children aren’t just hungry. They’re suffering from real hunger. Real hunger is painful and can leave kids lightheaded and lethargic. When their brains aren’t fueled, they’re not ready to learn. They’re kids like the boy who boasted one day to the cooks at his elementary school that his sister is the “best cook ever” because she made ketchup soup for him the night before.

One in six children in America suffers from real hunger. These kids live in every state and every county in the nation. Alabama is home to 247,150 hungry children, including 8,470 in Shelby County.

School Nutrition Association President Gay Anderson, the child nutrition director for Brandon Valley Schools in South Dakota, said the story of the child who liked his sister’s ketchup soup concoction isn’t as isolated as some might believe. Similar — or worse — stories are told every day in America, in every city, she said.

“We’re talking about really hungry kids — the ones who look forward to getting that backpack of food to take home for the weekend,” Anderson said. “I’ve heard many times, ‘Oh my gosh, look what we get,’ and seen the excitement in knowing they’re going to have some food to eat.”
Many schools offer backpack programs to provide students with nutritious, non-perishable and easy-to-prepare meals on weekends and holidays when they can’t depend on the school lunch programs. Even with these emergency food supplies, kids often come back with gnawing hunger on Monday, when schools go through more food than on any other day of the week, Anderson said.

“A couple of years ago, the mom of three boys called me on Monday morning and said, ‘I don’t have money to feed my kids,’ ” Anderson said, explaining the woman had taken her boys with her to the grocery store and showed them $1.91 and said, “This is all we have. What are we going to eat?”

Anderson said it’s not uncommon for food-insecure students in her home district and others across the country to slip apples, bananas and whatever they can into their pockets at lunch so they can help out their families at meal time. Older siblings sometimes skip meals or short-shrift their servings so the little ones can eat. Parents may not eat at all for a day or days so their children have food.

“In households across the country, parents often work to shield their children from the fact there isn’t enough food,” said Christina Martinez, the child-nutrition manager for Feeding America, which provides food through a nationwide network of food banks. “But kids are really perceptive, and really do pick up on it.”

Said Anderson: “We can see it in their eyes, wondering, ‘What am I going to eat? When am I going to eat?’ They have that fearful look.”

Children Of Working Parents

Stereotypes abound about these hungry children. Some are homeless, but most of them aren’t, said Martinez, adding: “In the majority of cases, they’re going home with their brothers and sisters.”

And in many cases, these hungry kids are the children of working parents.
While 13 million U.S. children are considered food insecure, even more families are “a $500 car repair or a broken arm away from food insecurity,” said Erica Olmstead, a field manager for No Kid Hungry, a project of Share Our Strength, a nonprofit group that works to ease hunger and poverty worldwide.

In a 2017 report, nearly two-thirds of low-income parents said a single, unplanned expense of $1,500 would make it difficult for them to feed their children. Among respondents, 92 percent were working families — that is, at least one adult in the household worked full-time, part-time or multiple jobs. Among other findings:

• 62 percent worried that food would run out faster than money to pay for it came in.
• 59 percent said the food they bought didn’t last and there wasn’t money for more.
• 23 percent said they had limited the size of a child’s meal because there wasn’t enough money for food.

“Honestly,” Olmstead said, “that’s unacceptable.”

‘Hangry’ Is Real

The problem isn’t just that these nearly 13 million American kids are hungry.
Published research shows that children in families who don’t know where their next meal is coming from are more likely than kids who have enough nutritious food to eat to have lower test scores and overall academic achievement. Hungry kids are more likely to skip school, have to repeat a grade or not finish school at all, limiting their chances of getting a good job. They’re also more likely to suffer chronic health conditions such as anemia and asthma, require hospitalization and suffer oral health problems.

Hungry kids also are prone to fighting, hyperactivity, aggression, anxiety, mood swings and bullying.

“ ‘Hangry’ is a real thing. Kids who are food insecure and hungry are more likely to act out, be discipline problems and find it harder to concentrate when a basic need isn’t being met,” said Annelise Cohon, who leads the Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom program for the NEA Foundation, the National Education Association’s public charity. “The impact of hunger can be felt throughout the life cycle for a student.”

Said Anderson of the School Nutrition Association: “We’ve got to nip childhood hunger. They’re our future. We’re feeding the future, and we do need to help them see where their next meal is coming from so they can learn and be prepared and ready to succeed.”

It isn’t that there’s not enough food to go around, but rather a matter of getting nutritious food in the right places.

To find out how to help, visit the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, which serves Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Walker and Winston counties.

As well, Vineyard Family Services has provided the backpack program for all three school systems in Shelby County for the last ten years.