Second Harvest Column: Feeding the Children

By Lois Rockhill

We are feeding our children so they can do better on the ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus). Is anyone else shuddering? I don’t know whether to applaud the connection or gasp at the disconnect.

We have concerned citizens who are providing nutritious snacks for kids taking tests. Why? We want our children to perform at their best. We want their brains functioning at full throttle so they do well, place well, reflect well on the community.

If there is anything wrong with that, it is that it doesn’t go far enough.

By concentrating on feeding kids taking the ISTEP, we are focusing on test results rather than on the child. The good thing is that we recognize the importance of adequate food to a child’s ability to work and learn at capacity. The sad thing is that we are focusing this recognition on test time rather than all the time.

If it takes nutritious snacks to get the most out of kids taking the ISTEP, why would we not want nutritious snacks in the classroom every day? If good nutrition is the kernel of truth to a good education, then why limit the emphasis to test day?

We have a tool at hand that has been underused. It is the federal School Breakfast Program. The program has the potential of providing every student with that critical breakfast boost before the school day starts.

Any child at a participating school may purchase a meal through the School Breakfast Program. Children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals.

In Indiana this year, any public school with 15 percent or more of its student body eligible for free and reduced lunch must provide breakfast. But making it available and making it desirable and accessible is not the same.

It would be good to look at the process in our schools. Perhaps parent groups or students themselves could suggest ways to improve student use of the breakfast program. Some school districts in the nation promote breakfast in the classroom. Some combine breakfast with reading and tutoring activities. I have heard, too, of schools that have an express breakfast for kids to eat on the bus.

My concern as an anti-hunger advocate is being sure children without the means have enough food to eat. I also know that any child is susceptible to going to school hungry. Lives are busy and complicated. Breakfast is often left out of the morning schedule.

We all know how important food is to the brain, the attitude and the overall well-being of our children. Let’s see to it that they aren’t hungry in school. Let’s do all we can to focus on the child. Feeding our kids for the ISTEP should whet our appetites to push for good food for every child every day.

Lois Rockhill is executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. She can be reached at lrockhill@curehunger.org.

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