Every child has the right to education. But for children whose families are below the poverty level, it’s very difficult to attend school because their families can’t afford the cost. The most pressing issue involves food. Many kids go to school hungry, lacking the nutrition they need.
According to reports from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the number of food-insecure households in America has risen from 36 million in 2007 to 49 million in 2008, when the recession hit the country. 16.7 million of the 49 million were children.
The report of Feeding America, one of the country’s largest networks of food banks, is equally bleak. Around one in four children live in food-insecure households and one in five children live in poverty.
The School Breakfast and Lunch Programs help alleviate this problem by providing nutritious meals to schoolchildren of low-income families. The District of Columbia and 13 other states go even further: they provide after-school suppers to kids in need.
The purpose of this after-school supper program is to provide at-risk kids with a healthy meal before they go home. Currently, around 49,000 children benefit from the after-school supper program. However, more states are expected to participate as the problem of hunger increases. The after-school supper program is expected to cost around $8 million from 2009 to 2013.
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