20% of children in Caddo and Bossier Parish live in food insecure areas. That’s 1 in every 5 kids who don’t know where their next meal will come from, or if it will even arrive.
During school, students are able to rely on breakfast and lunch from a cafeteria. For some, those are the only meals available during the week.
“So, if you are so focused on your belly, you have no brain power. Everything’s focused on: ‘I’m hungry. I need to eat.’ In terms of school, if you don’t have access to food and water, you’re not going to learn much.”
Dr. Joyce Farrow is the Department Chair for Education at LSU-Shreveport. She’s worked at LSUS for 5 years, but she’s been a part of K through 12 education for 29 years.
Students will exhibit different behaviors when hungry. Some might daydream and zone out, unable to pay attention to what’s in front of them. Others might have outbursts, hurt themselves or others, or just be generally disruptive. No matter how they behave, they are doing what they can to communicate their need for food. Behavior like this isn’t just limited to the school year, either.
How do malnourished kids behave during summer break?
“It’s going to depend on what’s happening for that child.”
Dr. Farrow says that a child who is at home for the summer might zone out in front of the TV or a video game rather than fill their time reading or “being productive.” On the other end, a malnourished child who participates in summer camps or baseball practice might exhibit the same behaviors as they would in a classroom. They might find it hard to follow instructions and pay attention, or they could get too physically tired to play.
“You might also see a lot of headaches or physical complaints from kids because they’re not getting enough nutrition or proper food.”
And if a child stays without proper nutrition for long enough, Dr. Farrow says that they could develop other lasting physical conditions that amplify problems at school. Or, students age and lose interest in school and stop going, or they are forced to be responsible for themselves and find food however they can.
Sustained hunger in kids leads to more than just immediate learning and health effects, too. Dr. Laura Meiki is a professor of sociology at LSUS. She has studied the relationship between food access and student success. If a child is consistently missing school due to a lack of interest or a health complication that stems from malnutrition, they may have an increased likelihood of repeating a grade. They might even have a lower likelihood of graduating high school.
“Which leads to long-term impacts. Not finishing high school - which is going to impact your future employment opportunities, which leads to a lower socioeconomic status," Dr. Meiki explains. "So, they’re all very interconnected.”
Dr. Meiki also explains that many food insecure families are also low-income households. That adds extra stress for children over the summer if they don’t have a way to stay active.
“Not having money at home for basic resources, you’re not going to have extra money to take an enriching summer program.”
And Dr. Meiki says that summer is a crucial time for kids. Even though they’re taking a break from school, a child’s mind should continue to learn during the summer to be ready for the next school year.
“If a child doesn’t have good nutrition over the summer, they may lose the progress they made over the summer during the school year,” Dr. Meiki says.
Ensuring that children continue to have access to food in school and during the summer is an important way that the community can help combat childhood hunger, according to Dr. Meiki. For example, voting to keep summer food programs available to students can help them be ready for learning even when they’re not in the classroom.
“You know, if you don’t build a good foundation, and a good foundation includes good nutrition, you’re going to end up having health problems and people who are underemployed or not meeting their full potential because they were restrained in their formative years,” she explains.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture established the Rural Non-Congregate Meal Service with the purpose of ensuring food for kids outside of big cities with less access to food.
Because of the Rural Non-Congregate Meal Service, summer food programs are available in rural locations across Louisiana. In Northwest Louisiana, one summer service is provided through the Bossier Parish School Board.
Carla Horton is the Food Service Supervisor for Child Nutrition at the BPSB. Horton says their program passed out over half a million meals to families last year and 470,000 meals this year.
“The beauty of this program is that it’s free to all," Horton explains. "And so, some of the families that may not meet the qualifications for free or reduced lunch or SNAP can still come and get this assistance for the summer.”
The only qualifications that need to be met according to the USDA are for Bossier, not for the families. Troy Hedland is the CEO of Optimum, the service that makes the boxes for the school board’s program. Hedland says that Optimum began making boxes for some nonprofits with the USDA’s Meals To You Program in 2020. He also says that the Rural Non-congregate Meal Service program is for places where a congregate food option isn’t available.
“You know, people can take the food to a different location and eat it, versus eating it in a cafeteria setting as they normally would,” Hedland says.
Congregate means the participants meet for something like summer school and they all eat together in a singular location. Non-congregate means they don’t have to eat in a singular location, meaning rural families can get food for a week and take it home.
“One of the things that we’ve seen is that less than 20% of the students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch have access to the free and reduced types of programs during the summertime. And so, that 80% is going without,” he explains.
They aren’t just going to singular families either. Some participants pick up for neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and even daycares, that way, even more kids have access to nutrients they might not be getting during the summer.
According to Horton, the boxes are made to fit the needs and wants of children.
“Each meal is going to have a fruit, a vegetable–it’s going to have a protein, a grain, and a milk.”
In addition, the boxes contain a variety of fun and healthy snacks that kids can enjoy, according to Horton. Denise Aldrich is the Child Nutrition Bookkeeper for BPSB, as well as a worker at the summer food sites, and a user of the program. As a parent, she says that kids eat a lot, and the boxes can come in handy.
“We use a lot of the shelf stable milk in our house for cooking and baking," Aldrich says. "I mean my kids love everything that we’ve provided for them. So, it’s great to have just those extra, you know, for either car trips or just at the house or if they have friends that are coming over, they’ll just take, you know, what we have.”
Jody Johnson is another parent who uses the program. He says that without the weekly boxes, his family wouldn’t have nutritious snacks.
“It’s incredibly appreciated what they’re doing here.”
According to Horton, they have a very specific system set up to make sure the program stays in place.
“I promise you; we have more audits and oversight and program integrity than you can imagine to make sure that we are responsibly using fiscal funds in order to provide a hot nutritious meal every day at school and then make sure that our kids also have access to meals during the summer when school is not in session,” she says.
Which, according to Horton, is why they need community backing and support for the program. She asks the Bossier and Caddo Parish communities to stay educated and up to date on local legislation that would put the program at risk.
“It’s easy to think in this day and age that food insecurity is not alive and well, but it absolutely is in all of our parishes."
With Red River Radio news, I’m Alaina Atnip