Teacher Sends Hungry First Graders Home With Backpacks Full Of Food

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/10/06/3576236/teacher-backpacks-food/

Teacher Sends Hungry First Graders Home With Backpacks Full Of Food

by Bryce Covert Posted on October 6, 2014 at 9:02 am Updated: October 6, 2014 at 11:46 am


Marvin Callahan, a first grade teacher at public school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has started a program to send backpacks full of food home with some of his students on the weekends after witnessing widespread hunger.

When he started the job 21 years ago, he said he had no idea how many families were struggling to feed their children or keep a roof over their heads. New Mexico has the highest rate of child hunger in the country, with nearly a third of children going to bed hungry, although the problem is widespread enough that three-quarters of the country’s teachers say students routinely show up to school hungry.

In response to the problem, Callahan and other members of the community send 37 children home with backpacks full of food each weekend: two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners. As Carolyn Gregoire of the Huffington Post reports, “Retired teachers come in on Thursdays to fill up the backpacks with food items like breakfast bars, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, beefaroni and sliced turkey — things that the kids can easily put together themselves.” He began the program two years ago out of his own pocket, although it now has donations from members of the community and local organizations.

“It’s hard for me to go home some weekends when the kids are saying, ‘I don’t want to go home because I don’t have anything at home,’” he told the Huffington Post. “I just hope that when I get home and open my refrigerator and there’s food in there, I hope that they have the same thing.”


Illustration: Dylan Petrohilos

There has been a sharp rise in hunger across the country since the recession, with the share of households experiencing food insecurity, or the inability to afford adequate food, at 14 percent last year, or 17.5 million families. That’s an increase from just 11 percent between 2005 and 2007. And more than one in five children lived in a food insecure household in 2012. While most food insecure families can keep eating by buying very basic foods, 6.8 million households had at least one family member who had to eat less, and 765,000 children lived in those households last year. These bouts of food insecurity hit families for an average of seven months out of the year and for a quarter they happened almost every month.

Hunger isn’t just a discomfort for children. It can have a severe impact on their education and development. Only half of the 21 million children who are eligible for free breakfast at school participate, but if that gap were closed, 3.2 million students would have higher test scores, there would be 4.8 million fewer absences, and there would be 807,000 more high school graduates. Hungry students struggle to keep up with the cognitive development of their peers and have a higher risk of mental health problems.

One way to get more food to hungry students would be to expand free meal programs to the entire district. That’s what schools in Boston, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, and Winston-Salem, NC are doing by participating in a Department of Agriculture program that lets all students eat free breakfast and lunch, regardless of income, to increase take up and reduce paperwork. But when they go home, they may still face empty shelves, a problem that may only be solved with higher food stamp participation and higher incomes.

[KamaAina]

1. They'll probably find some ridiculous excuse to fire him.

[TygrBright]

24. You speak truer than you may know...

The one drum Susie Tex has been banging has been all the wonderful stuff she's done for school children. Why, she's had as many as three photo-ops a week with adorable school kids!

A story like this that rains on her parade may well reverberate on down to get swept under a rug, which would of course include getting rid of the pesky teacher who's to blame for this downer-type news, doncha know...

sourly,
Bright

[malthaussen]

51. Either fire him or stop him from doing it.

They can get him for violating the health code or something, as they did with the group that was handing out food to the homeless awhile back.

-- Mal

[fasttense]

55. You are probably right but in some schools here in East TN

they have been sending kids home on the weekend with an extra backpack stuffed with food. They have been doing it for awhile because my daughter, who has just completed grad school, told me how they use to do it in her school system.

Here is a link: http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/education/2014/07/17/hungry-kids-could-benefit-from-balanced-calendar/12805521/

It's a great program.

[valerief]

58. Food stamps is a better program--when funded. nt

[KG]

2. but the military's got all the guns and shit needs

[orpupilofnature57]

5. Congress will decide that, for the common good .

[Arugula Latte]

16. But ... But ... Don't you know there are still Halliburton executives who only have FOUR homes?!

Some of them don't even have another home on a different continent!

[orpupilofnature57]

39. +1000 !!!!

[merrily]

42. The ones who risk arrest if they set foot on other continents sure don't.

[valerief]

59. It's got tons more shit it doesn't need and doesn't want, too!! Thank our elected officials for that

[CurtEastPoint]

3. This is shameful, in this wealthy country, for this to happen.

[NightWatcher]

4. but we've got money for wars against enemies we can't even find

Maybe if the kids went to the Khorasan Elementary school, we could throw some money at them.

[daleanime]

13. Please be patient....

we are creating enemies as fast as we can.

[indepat]

6. Millions of hungry children is but one of a gaggle of prices TPTB willingly pay to bring full

fruition of their rabidly extreme right-wing (PNAC) wet dream to America in this new American century. And the beat goes on and on and the criminality of this abuse of power grows ever greater.

[Rex]

7. But hey...the richest 400 Americans almost have 2.3 trillion dollars!

Won't you think of the uber-wealthy? Won't you?

[babylonsister]

8. Bernie Sanders keeps bonging people over the head

with those pesky facts; why aren't more people?

[Rex]

9. We live in the American Haze. Things are good enough, no cops busting down my door.

The car is paid off...little things that keep people from being too upset to get the pitchforks and torches. Bernie can talk all day long, as to if his message is getting out to the masses...maybe, but not registering fully.

Plus what do we do about the people that always vote against their own self interest? How do we change their mode of thinking, if they don't want to change and view us as 'the enemy'?

[babylonsister]

10. I spoke to an insurance agent in Ohio

yesterday. We sort of went there peripherally; he had absolutely no interest in voting or what's going on in our country. He lives in a happy little bubble and it appeared to me he'd let nothing burst that, least of all politics. I don't think there is any getting through; too many apathetic people combined with the crazies...scares the hell out of me.

[Rex]

34. The crazies scare me too. I've always been one that looks at the aggregate.

Growing up and realizing the nation as a healthy entity was important to me. A lot of people however don't give it a moments thought. Too busy buying into whatever Commercial America is selling. Living in that material world, enjoying the surface and never diving into the deep water.

They say ignorance is bliss. That seems true for far too many people imo.

[Dustlawyer]

18. Most people today won't do anything proactive to help to solve these problems. The biggest of all,

the legal bribery of our elected officials to write the laws that benefit the already insanely wealthy to the detriment of the rest of us. Bernie is right that we need to get the money out of our elections by having our elections publicly funded. If we had Representatives that actually represented all of the citizens we could have a working government again. We would need to bust up the oligopolies in Wall Street and the media, as well as deconstruct their insidious networks and revolving doors in our regulatory agaencies and the judicial branch.
Our country needs to undergo a radical transformation which could happen if enough people were fed up enough go fight for it. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen until people cannot afford to pay their cable bill.

[840high]

22. Sanders is honest and has a heart. He cares. I can

count on one hand the number of politicians who are honest and kind and care. They care about their own pockets. I'm including both parties.

[pangaia]

12. Well, the wealthy do pay more in taxes, you know.

[Rex]

35. Sure is nice of them to do that for us.

When they pay taxes.

[pangaia]

47. Sure is, isn't it.

Those poor put upon yacht owners.

[merrily]

43. Romney owed less than 13.5% of his investment income in taxes.

And then, there are mega-corporations who owe zero in taxes.

As with so many things, it depends on how you define terms, in this case "the wealthy" and "more."

Besides, if we had more people fully employed at decent wages, the 99% would be paying more.

When the rich have most of the income, yes, they will owe most of the income taxes. That's how it works.

[pangaia]

46. I guess I REALLY needed to include the sarcasm thingy, eh.

OK==

[merrily]

48. Don't look at me.

I had a post hidden because I didn't use the sarcasm emote. I think 4 out of 7 jurors mentioned that I should have used it.

Apparently, my pretending to condemn school children for not being job creators was not self-evidently sarcastic enough without the emote.

But, a reply to your post is not necessarily to address only you.

[pangaia]

49. OK, my bad, I thought you were snipping at my heals.

We're good.

[merrily]

50. Nope. Only if you attack me personally-and even then, I might not.

Depends on the day.

Sometimes, a post, sarcastic or not, just opens a door to put certain facts out there for whoever might need them or be interested in them.

[tblue37]

56. Cool portmanteau word: sniping + yipping = snipping, with the added

(and appropriate) implication of taking a bladed tool to you to cut you.

[jtuck004]

11. This administration thinks it important to send thieving bankers $1.3 trillion a year, still. You

can read about the plan in Geithner's "Stress Test", how it was developed and implemented.

That would be better invested providing opportunity for parents with hungry kids, instead of spent on thieving rentiers.

[daleanime]

14. K&R....

[EEO]

15. "Food Insecurity" is such a ridiculous term.

Last edited Tue Oct 7, 2014, 01:28 PM - Edit history (1)

It's hunger. It's poverty. Let's not drape it in desensitizing terms.

Both politics and law make me distrustful of language and this is why.

[littlemissmartypants]

31. Thank you. nt

[merrily]

44. +1

Words influence thoughts and emotions and thoughts and emotions influence actions (or inaction).

[jopacaco]

17. My school does it too

I teach in Central Maine and for the last few years, our school nurse has organized a weekend backpack program too. She runs regular collections for non-perishable supplies to fill backpacks and this year, got a small grant to help. Right now we are having a breakfast blitz for 3 weeks to collect cereal. These backpacks quietly end up in student's hands every Friday afternoon and they return the empty backpacks on Monday. Our nurse always worries about school vacations because of hungry students.
There is no excuse for children being hungry in this country. How can our elected officials turn their back on these kids?

[kmlisle]

29. Ditto for my school here is Florida

When I retired three years ago we were sending home about a dozen back packs a week and had done so for many years. And my church sponsors a back pack program in another school and we are up to almost 20 back packs and there is a need for more. It costs about 500 dollars a year to sponsor a child in order to send home food every weekend. We raise the money with grants and donations.
At the school where I taught, which was Title I with a 75% free and reduced lunch rate, if you gave children treats in he class room some would put them in their pockets for the hungry toddlers at home.

[Jefferson23]

19. He should not need to do this, it's just nuts where we are. K&R for the teachers. n/t

[lobodons]

20. Lazy Parents

GOP Fox news response: Shame on the teacher to reinforce laziness to the kids while their parents sit at home not working. Cue response....3,2,1

[gopiscrap]

21. My wife works certified classroom teacher

in an inner city public school also and this has been an on going problem for quite awhile.

[SheilaT]

23. I live in Santa Fe,

and a few years ago I had a temp job at a middle school on the south side of this city. The number of kids who qualified for free lunches was so high that all the kids got free lunches. And free breakfasts if they came early enough.

I've come around to thinking that lunches should be free to all the students in the public schools. This doesn't completely solve the problem of no food at home, but it's a start.

[jmowreader]

40. It would also destigmatize the free lunch program

[SheilaT]

57. That too.

[aggiesal]

25. Good on Marvin Callahan, ...

unfortunately, what happens with school lets out in June through Sept.?

Yet NM has a republican governor.

I know this problem is more nuanced, but republicans are not helping the problem.

[yuiyoshida]

26. Its unbelievable that in this day and

age, plus Right wingers spouting this is the greatest country in the world, we can't even feed the kids. This is great, what this teacher is doing, but I am sure there are some states, that make this activity illegal.. that's a MAJOR WTF in my book... but I guess the 1% doesn't give a damn. They have their steaks and Caviar, and flip off the rest of us, who are hoping to afford a McDonald's hamburger, some where. Some Republicans are truly @$$#0l3$.

[Scootaloo]

27. Compare and contrast these graphics

versus



There's a word for this. That word is "evil."

[quakerboy]

28. Well, damn. The Republicans were right.

If they have extra left to feed hungry kids, clearly we are paying teachers too damn much. (yes. Sarcasm)

[malthaussen]

52. And there's no need for public programs...

... because individual charity takes care of the problem. Ah, the GOP paradise, found.

-- Mal

[groundloop]

63. You nailed it.... we're a damned poor excuse for a country where people depend on charity to survive

I'm all for giving to charities, my family gives to several throughout the year. BUT the problem is that far far too many people fall through the little bit of a safety net that charities provide, if we as a nation possessed a fraction of the caring and kindness that many claim then none of this would be necessary.

Now that my little rant is finished, hats off to the teachers for helping those kids.

[Dont call me Shirley]

30. The ABQ/Rio Rancho teachers have been doing that for quite a while. Proud of our school teachers!

[theHandpuppet]

32. Thanks so much for this thread

I'd like to add a couple of links from Appalachia Group which are apropos to child hunger and the backpack program:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1272429
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1272561

[JEB]

33. Hunger is a cruelty that should never be tolerated

in this country.

[burrowowl]

36. Good MAN!

I'm here in ABQ! Would like to contribute a very small donation.

[TeamPooka]

37. Bread & Circuses only works when there's bread. We have an abundance of circus right now. nt

[Cha]

38. Mahalo Marvin Callahan! Being a teacher in a public school you really see what's going

on with these poor kids and how hungry they are. Thank you for getting this vital program started!

"He began the program two years ago out of his own pocket, although it now has donations from members of the community and local organizations."


Mahalo babylonsistah~

[barbtries]

41. hunger in the USA

what a travesty.

[merrily]

45. Fire that fucking Communist

then make him head of the school board or superintendent of schools.

[Starry Messenger]

53. I notice all the DU teacher haters lined up to rec this post.

[northoftheborder]

54. Blessings in a Backpack

Local volunteer group has started this for our elementary schools. The teachers are supplied non-perishable nutritious food items which are gathered, sorted, and delivered to the teachers to distribute to the needy children in their classes once a week. On Friday, the teachers discretely place these supplemental foods in the backpacks while the children are out to recess. They started with a few classes in one school, but it is growing. This is a very prosperous suburban town, but there are a lot of children whose families do not have enough income to feed their families adequately. Of course, a lot of these probably have parents who work at the gigantic Walmart here.

[ladjf]

60. This is some very good human behavior. nt

[ZombieHorde]

61. To me,

hunger is much scarier than Ebola and terrorism combined. I wish more people agreed with me. How do you convince someone that 20,000 deaths each day from starvation is worse than fewer than 100 deaths each day from Ebola and ISIS?

[zentrum]

62. Childhood Nutrition is Michele Obama's

....issue as First Lady. The teacher and his supporters should bring this to her attention and invite her to visit.

Childhood hunger in America should be a front page scandal.

[noiretextatique]

64. more tax breaks for kazillionaires & endless war will solve all problems

what a great human being, that caring teacher. the mess in DC just makes me there are so many problems that could be solved, if we has sane people in the house and senate. it is a crime.

[redruddyred]

65. I'll probably get an alert for bringing this up, but,

I know a lot of these kids come from traditional Catholic families where contraception is strongly frowned-upon.

I'm not saying that their offspring deserve to go hungry, but I wonder why people have children which they can't afford. esp in terms of environmental impact, we are at a population crisis; I think it's shocking that people continue to reproduce.

[frylock]

66. i've filled up these "backpacks" at our local food bank..

if you can afford the time, please volunteer. you meet a lot of wonderful people, and it's incredibly fulfilling.