Issue Research Essay
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) almost sixteen million children in our country below the age of eighteen live in homes where they do not have consistent access to food (“Child Hunger Fact Sheet”, 2014). This is not due to a lack of food or lack of access to it in our country, but rather because of the growing rate of poverty in the United States (“Why Are Children Hungry, and Why Should I Care”, 2014). As this rate keeps increasing, children are becoming more and more vulnerable to the negative affects of poverty because they have no way of changing their family’s economic status. Their access to not just food, but also water, health care, and an education are also threatened making the
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Just within the Tampa Bay Area, over 250,000 children struggle with hunger on a daily basis (“2010 Hunger Study – West Central Florida”, 2014). Sister Maria from St. Peter Claver Catholic School said “some students come to school with a bag of Cheetos to last them throughout the day.” Aside from the fact that there is no nutritional value to this snack, one bag of chips is also certainly not enough to sustain a human being for eight hours. One way that Tampa is combatting students coming to class without having a proper meal is through school provided breakfasts and lunches. About sixty- two percent of students in Hillsborough County are eligible for a free or reduced meal, an increase of almost twelve percent from the previous five years, mainly due to problems with unemployment in the city. By making sure that all students are fed for the school day, their attention is heightened, they are less likely to be tardy to class, and teachers have reported fewer behavioral problems (“Hunger Facts Carousel”,