A Life without Free Breakfast

The alarm clock blared. Nick's eyes flew open, he hated that sound. With it came a week's worth of worries, anxiety, and worst of all: hunger. He swung himself out of bed, got dressed and padded downstairs to the kitchen. Mom was already gone, having left her usual note:

Nick opened the fridge and peeked into the pizza box. Not surprisingly, the week old pizza was moldy. Nick's stomach growled angrily but he picked up his backpack to leave. Moldy pizza was not better than nothing.

When he got to school the bell hadn't rung yet and students still stood around talking and eating breakfast. Nick watched them enviously. There was no way he could afford the $1 it cost for a bagel and juice, and still eat lunch. The bell finally rang and he trudged through the door.

Each class before lunch was a matter of taking his mind off his stomach and periodically glancing at the clock. Finally, the last class before lunch. Home Ec. This was the worst; not only did his stomach growl so loud that everyone stared at him, but how were you supposed to forget about food when that was all the teacher would talk about?

The clock was his only distraction, though each minute seemed longer than the last.

11:15,

11:30,

Nick raised his hand and asked to get a drink. Water would fill his stomach and stop the hunger pangs but not get rid of the dizziness. When he got back he glanced at the clock.

11:45

The teacher was saying something about homework but Nick was too busy imagining a full lunch tray to pay any attention.

11:57

Nick shoved his books into a pile and picked them up.

11:58

The second hand ticked around as the clock face morphed into a steaming apple pie.

11:59

12:00

"Dismissed."

Nick was the first one out the door. The lunch line seemed to stretch forever, but finally he could sit down and eat. He wasn’t the only one at his table but Nick ignored his tablemates to wolf down his chicken patty.

The afternoon classes passed much more quickly, Nick even managed to remember some of the homework that the teachers assigned. With his stomach comfortably full he could really pay attention and he even got an answer right in Science.

When he got home, Mom hadn't yet left for her evening job and was sitting at the table reading mail. Nick winced at the stack of bills by her elbow. She gave him a tired smile, then glanced back down at the piece of mail and frowned.

"Nick….?" She asked, holding up the letter.

"What? Oh, yeah." He remembered that report cards had gone home today. Nick went to look over his mom's shoulder at his grades.

"How is it," she asked with amused reproach, "that you manage to get an A in Math and a B+ in Science, then a D in History and fail English and Home Ec?"

"They're...um...harder classes…" he mumbled. "I'll try harder."

She stood up and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze.

"Well, I have to go now – don't want to be late," she said briskly. "Work on your homework until I'm back, especially that Home Ec and English. Then we’'ll see if we can scrape together a good dinner."

"Okay. Bye Mom"

As Nick trudged upstairs he knew exactly why his report card was so unbalanced. The D and two F's were "before-lunch" classes and the A and B+ were "after-lunch" classes. Maybe all those teachers were right – saying he had "potential". But what was the point of potential if he was too hungry to use it?

HUNGER IN VERMONT                                                                               

HUNGER, it’s alive and it thrives on anyone, but the people who are most vulnerable are children and the lower income families.Only 30% of people who need food assistance use it; luckily one program that helps is school meals. For only $2.25, a child can eat lunch and breakfast for a week! (This is with the reduced lunch program). This program will help families because it reduces the cost for them.  Approximately 19,000 children in Vermont live in a family that is having trouble putting food on the table.

H.333 is a bill in the legislature that is to help these families feed these children during the school year. If H.333 gets through to a law every child that is eligible will be able to have free lunch and breakfast funded by the government.

  If I don’t see hunger in Vermont does that mean that it is not important? “Just because it doesn’t look like there’s hunger in your neighborhood doesn’t mean that there isn’t.” Says Christian Reifsteck, from the Food Shelf. Even if you don’t see it you can still ask about it too.

There are many ways that you and the people in your community can help. If you want to help the people in your community then you can volunteer. There are many ways to help if you have money, too—you can donate money or food. If you have the body you can donate your strength by helping with moving things. If you have the time you can do something that will let other people know that there are ways to end hunger. It’s just that some of us are not trying hard enough to find those ways to help others.

If there was one thing that I learned during my whole experience learning about this issue in school that would be if you can do something to help someone with anything at all then do it. If someone has a disease, has lost a loved one or has just had car accident and can’t afford to buy their child essentials then it can be hard to put food on the table.  It could make all the difference in the world if somebody could help them financially or you could do the simplest thing in the world and then they know that someone cares.

                                                                                                2/4/08

                          A Hidden Hunger

Hunger-- a weakened condition brought about by a lack of access to food. When you think of hunger, you think of the scrawny children from Africa who are the common face of hunger. This stereotype is not always true. Although global hunger is an issue, local hunger is problematic too. Local hunger may not be as well known as global hunger, but is still as big an issue.   

Hunger can lead to malnutrition. Malnutrition is a condition that occurs when a person’s body is not getting enough nutrients. Malnutrition and hunger are not the same. You can have enough to eat but not enough nutrients in what you are eating. Malnutrition is bad for anyone, but it is especially bad for children. Children are more likely than adults to live in a house where they are experiencing food insecurity. Malnutrition can cause brain damage for children that will impact them for the rest of their lives. Malnutrition can make it hard for children to focus and learn. Even mild hunger can cause learning impairments in children.   

9.6 percent of households in Vermont are food insecure, which means that those families don’t have a consistent access to nutritious food. 45,000 families in Vermont receive Food Stamps every year. Out of 57,000 Vermonters that are food insecure, 19,000 are children. The amount of Vermont households that are food insecure have doubled in the last eight years.

Although these statistics are shocking, there are current organizations and people who are trying to help. Some of these organizations are the food shelves. Food shelves provide food for 5 days every month to families that depend on it. The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf in Burlington has many programs to help people stay nourished. This food shelf serves a hot breakfast to anyone and everyone. The Burlington School District has a free breakfast program where they provide breakfast to all of the students before school. The Burlington School District also provides reduced price lunches for students whose families cannot afford regular prices. There are also classes and summer programs that teach kids and adults about nutrition and budgeting.                           

How can you help? The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf is always looking for donations of food or money. Also a way to help is to volunteer to serve food at the food shelf. There are many other organizations you can volunteer for too.         

 Hunger in Vermont

HUNGER, it’s alive and it thrives on anyone, but the people who are most vulnerable are children and the lower income families.Only 30% of people who need food assistance use it; luckily one program that helps is school meals. For only $2.25, a child can eat lunch and breakfast for a week! (This is with the reduced lunch program). This program will help families because it reduces the cost for them.  Approximately 19,000 children in Vermont live in a family that is having trouble putting food on the table.

H.333 is a bill in the legislature that is to help these families feed these children during the school year. If H.333 gets through to a law every child that is eligible will be able to have free lunch and breakfast funded by the government.

  If I don’t see hunger in Vermont does that mean that it is not important? “Just because it doesn’t look like there’s hunger in your neighborhood doesn’t mean that there isn’t.” Says Christian Reifsteck, from the Food Shelf. Even if you don’t see it you can still ask about it too.

There are many ways that you and the people in your community can help. If you want to help the people in your community then you can volunteer. There are many ways to help if you have money, too—you can donate money or food. If you have the body you can donate your strength by helping with moving things. If you have the time you can do something that will let other people know that there are ways to end hunger. It’s just that some of us are not trying hard enough to find those ways to help others.

If there was one thing that I learned during my whole experience learning about this issue in school that would be if you can do something to help someone with anything at all then do it. If someone has a disease, has lost a loved one or has just had car accident and can’t afford to buy their child essentials then it can be hard to put food on the table.  It could make all the difference in the world if somebody could help them financially or you could do the simplest thing in the world and then they know that someone cares.