There Are Solutions!

 

-   School meals play a very important part in a child’s day.  In the state of Vermont by law every child must attend school.  This means that affordable lunches and breakfast are very important.  Also going hungry can affect how a child acts in school or how well they do with school work.

-   Currently out of 323 public schools in Vermont , 30 schools are currently without a school breakfast program.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and those who don’t eat breakfast are more likely to be in a bad mood and or do badly in school.  Being hungry cause’s children to not do as well in school.  Getting breakfast programs in every school would be a very good step in this topic.  Giving every child a program like this would help solve this problem.

 

The Burlington School District has a free school breakfast program for everyone, not just those who qualify for food stamps which like some government programs, and leaves people out. Also, some people feel awkward receiving free handouts. It is considered by some, less socially acceptable to get free breakfast if you are the only one getting it. If everyone is ordering breakfast no one notices if you’re not paying. That way you aren’t noticed, and you get breakfast, which helps your grades. The school breakfast only costs 30¢ so it would be really cheap for the government to subsidize. And for some kids lives H.333 would make all the difference!

 

    There are several solutions, though none of them are easy.  First of all, we could educate people, which is important because if we educate people, it would make it easier to solve hunger.  We could also convince people to donate food, but that is even harder.  We decided to focus on making sure that students got the food they need. 

     We’re supporting the bill that is in the Vermont legislature, H. 333.  H. 333 is a bill that will make breakfast for all students free in schools.  This is important because even a bit of malnutrition can lead to cognitive impairments.  Also, 19,000 kids suffer of hunger in Vermont. We can lower that number if we provide free breakfast for students.  Vermont is one of the healthiest states, we can make it so the majority of kids are well nourished, all with H. 333. 

Our city has free breakfast--why can’t the rest of Vermont follow this?

     People may think that kids get food, but is it nutritious?  Generally not, since the less nutritious foods are generally less expensive.  If kids can get meals at schools, that will allow to have more money to spend on dinner and food for the weekend.  This is the way we chose to start to put an end to Vermont hunger.  There are many solutions, but this is the one that could be among the top 5 in best and easiest. 

     As kids, we can’t do anything besides encouraging people, but you, the government, can: you can get bill H. 333 passed. It is one of the most important things in ending hunger.  As we said earlier, nutrition when you’re young is really important, and if we can eradicate hunger when people are young, they will be able to learn better and be able eventually to get a better, higher paying job that will let them have enough money for food.

 

Other SOLUTIONS

-      Some of the solutions to this problem include, food stamps, housing, government assistance, and going to a local food shelf or a price friendly shopping center.

- Over 24,000 Vermont children live in households eligible for food stamps, but only 16,800 households are receiving food stamps.  Food stamps should be covering everyone that is eligible to receive them.

 

Thanks for reading our web page.