Schools Feed Hungry Children

Holmes Elementary Principal Denise Sandbo arrived late for her appointment to talk about hunger.

“It’s interesting that you’re here right now,” she apologized. “I’m late because I had to meet with a parent who doesn’t have anything in the house for dinner tonight.”

In the West Central neighborhood where Holmes is located, hunger is a way of life: 92 percent of Holmes students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, more than any other school in the city and, perhaps, in the state.

“They say we’re the lowest socio-economic school community in the state. Five percent of our school population is either homeless or living in shelters.”

Sixty-seven percent of the students who begin the school year at Holmes will be gone by June.

Bemiss, in the city’s Northwest corner, is not far behind. Eighty-six percent of its students qualify for meal subsidies, which are funded by the Department of Agriculture. Free meals are available to students who live in households whose incomes are 130 percent of the federal poverty level. A household income equaling 185 percent of the poverty level qualifies a child for reduced-price meals.

“We have approximately 32,000 students in District 81,” said Doug Wordell, Director of Nutrition Services; “15,000 get free or reduced meals.”

Kids in neighborhoods like those served by Holmes and Bemiss often come to school hungry. “We feed a lot of kids who would be hungry otherwise,” said principal Lorna Spear. “Teachers are aware of the kids who don’t get breakfast and get them right into the food room.”

“Ninety-two percent of our kids wouldn’t eat a balanced diet without school meals,” Sandbo said.

Many times children from needy families fill up on unhealthy food. “When kids talk about what they eat at home,” Sandbo said, “ it’s clear that there’s a lot of fast food and easy-cooking meals. And these kids tend not to be big salad or fruit eaters.”

Hunger manifests itself in school in many ways, she added. Sometimes in tears; other times in misbehavior or inattentiveness.

“They talk about being hungry. They worry about what they’re going to eat at night.”

“Sometimes, when a kid acts out,” Spear said, “you ask them why and they say `I was hungry, Mrs. Spear.’

Well-fed children perform better in school.

“Kids who are hungry squirm, they can’t focus,” said Sandbo. At both schools, the principals have learned to give kids a healthy snack - juice and a power bar, perhaps - before taking standardized tests.

“Kids burn a lot of food,” Spear said. “They perform better when they eat. “When we test them, we feed them first.”

If they ate all the food put in front of them, kids could have as much as 50 or 60 percent of their minimum daily nutritional needs met at school, Doug Wordell said. “We’re targeted to meet thirty-three percent of their nutritional needs and lunch, and 25 percent at breakfast.”

The impact of early malnutrition is difficult to sort out from a multitude of causes, but it can play a role in learning. “We see kids who have difficulty thinking beyond their next step, or their next meal,” Spear said. “We have children with learning disabilities based on early malnutrition.”

The big role food plays in the lives of these children gives it a weight it doesn’t have elsewhere. Sometimes, a hot meal is a good reason to come to school. “Kids show up at 7:50 for a breakfast doesn’t start until 8:30,” Spear said.

Recently, Sandbo said, a child was sent home from Holmes before lunch because he had scabies. “He looked at his mother and said `I’m going home? I won’t get anything to eat.’

‘“People jump around here when kids say they didn’t get anything to eat,” said Sandbo. “We have a wonderful kitchen staff; they will do whatever it takes to get a child fed, and we were able to give that boy a meal before he left.

“We often use food as a reward. A lot of times, if you give them the choice of food or playtime or time on the computer, they’ll take the food.”

Hunger doesn’t exist in a vacuum and children who come to school hungry are likely to have many unfulfilled needs. Schools like Holmes and Bemiss perform a role in the neighborhood that goes far beyond the educational mission.

“Schools are becoming wrap-around services for kids who are coming to school without having their needs met,” Wordell said.

In a poor neighborhood a school can be a lifeline of sorts, a way to access community resources through a non-threatening institution.

“We get lots of visits from parents and guardians asking for help,” Sandbo said. “And it’s not just food,” said Stephanie Leek, Holmes school counselor. “It’s also clothing, housing, furniture.”

But the connection between school and neighborhood can be a tenuous one. “A lot of the parents have had horrendous experiences when they were at school,” said school counselor Leek said. “They may have been treated badly, told they were stupid. It can be hard to win their trust.”

However, parents begin to let their guard down when they realize that the school is an access point to other agencies, Sandbo said.

“Hunger problems are exacerbated by a lack of access to health care,” said Spear. “Prevention doesn’t always happen, because parents are in a reactive mode. Parents who work two or three jobs have a hard time getting to the doctor.”

Hunger is one of the easier problems to address, the educators agreed.

“Food is one of the easier things to fix,” Leek said. “It’s harder to fix crack-addicted parents or sexual abuse. These are things we can’t do much about. Food is easier.”