It’s #HungerAction month, which means that all across the country those who work to combat hunger are raising awareness about the growing problem of hunger in America. You might see the #HungerAction hash tag come across your twitter or Facebook feed. Here’s why you should read those posts.
Awareness is important because we have the tools to fight hunger, but those tools – things like SNAP, the National School Lunch Program and WIC – are under a lot of pressure from growing demand and shrinking resources.
Awareness is important because hunger hurts all of us – especially when children are the ones affected. Hunger increases children’s risk for various health problems and is one of the severest obstacles to learning, especially when a person’s brain is rapidly developing.
Simply put, when children are hungry, they struggle to learn. When they struggle to learn, they struggle in life. When they struggle in life, it hurts us all.
In Massachusetts, there are more than 272,000 children who receive school meal assistance, and 16% of children struggle with food insecurity. That means, on average, there are 3 children per classroom who are food insecure.
How could we expect those children to learn hungry?
#HungerAction month gives us an opportunity to remember the critical importance of the National School Lunch Program, which serves more than 31 million children nationwide. Congress is going to be focused on renewing this program and other children’s nutrition programs next year, and it is vital that we recognize the role that school lunches play in helping to alleviate hunger in America.
We know that address childhood food security is an investment in our future. Actor Jeff Bridges put it well when he recently said, “You’re not gonna have a strong America if you got weak kids.”
Join us and help build a stronger America by sharing our message about hunger in Massachusetts on Facebook and Twitter.