Hunger isn’t always obvious. In children and teens, hunger disguises itself as behavioral issues, dropping grades and isolation. Perhaps no one knows this better than teachers and school staff, who are often the first to identify when students aren’t getting enough to eat at home. Crocker School Pantry coordinator and library aide Jackie Scholfield is all too familiar with the effects of child hunger.
Of the people served by Ozarks Food Harvest’s hunger-relief network, one-third live in a household with children. So many of these children rely on nutritious school meals that help them learn, grow, and play, but what happens when school lets out for the summer?
This school year, a great benefit available to all students for the past two years isn’t there – free breakfast and lunch.
One in four children in the Ozarks are at risk of going hungry
Thousands of children living right here in the Ozarks have a secret — they are hungry.
Some of these kids are hungry every day, and some might experience it only on the weekends of the school year or when they aren’t in summer programs. But for the one in four kids facing this struggle, it is a painful reality.
SGC Foodservice delivered a truckload of food to Ozarks Food Harvest, thanks to donations provided by its employees, customers and vendors during the Fill the Truck fundraiser.
Proceeds from the fundraiser were used to purchase child-friendly and shelf-stable food items including cereal, fruit juices and easy-open cans of vegetable soup to support The Food Bank’s Weekend Backpack Program.
For children in the Ozarks who are hungry, every day brings a new struggle.
Concentrating in school, finishing homework in the evenings and even playing outside with friends is not easy or fun with an empty stomach. The only meals thousands of these children can count on are breakfast and lunch at school.
When classes are dismissed on Friday afternoon, the weekend can seem awfully long to a child who doesn’t know where his or her meals will come from.
Ozarks Food Harvest is partnering with Panera Bread for Empty Bowls 2015. The annual event, set for Sept. 25, raises awareness of hunger in southwest Missouri.
For a donation to OFH, event-goers receive soup, a baguette and art to take home. The creations, ranging from pottery to carved wood, are meant to serve as a reminder of the thousands of “empty bowls” found on dinner tables across the Ozarks each night.