Hunger issues present challenges for families, workforce, and economy.

• Author: Dillon, Thale

Hungry in Montana

An increasing number of people in Montana are living on the financial edge, where even a small change in a family situation can cause an immediate plunge into poverty. Such changes range from the loss of employment or reduced working hours to illnesses, accidents, or death. With hunger and income undeniably connected, the recent economic climate has tipped many people over the edge to poverty through either unemployment or under-employment. Food insecurity and hunger are not affecting just the unemployed but the growing numbers of the working poor as well. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food insecurity and hunger are a very real risk for anyone living below 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Line (equivalent to an annual income of $41,350 for a family of four), thus affecting more than 40 percent of Montanans in 2010. Food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens, originally intended to address inadequate access to food on a temporary basis, have become institutionalized in communities across the state and the country.

Simply "getting by" has become more and more difficult for some as the unemployment rate has climbed, along with gas prices, food prices, and housing costs. Especially for households with children, "getting by" requires making significant sacrifices in terms of the trade-offs involved to pay for a family's most basic needs. For parents, this also includes going to great lengths to ensure their children have enough to eat, including skipping or cutting the size of their own meals. Against this backdrop, the importance of school meals becomes obvious (Bradford, 2008).

School-Based Meals

With free or reduced-price meals provided to public-school students throughout the state, Montana's children have a source of nutritious food, at least while in school. However, lunch five days a week cannot provide growing children with adequate nutrition, nor can it keep them from being hungry during the times of the day when children are not in school. The implications for the learning process are undeniable. One first grade teacher in Washington, D.C., Erica Rose, has concluded that she has only two effective days to teach each week.

"Mondays and Tuesdays are lost because of the hunger from the weekend," according to Rose. "On Fridays most of the students can't concentrate because they are filled with anxiety and aggravation, knowing the weekend is coming, and that means not enough food at home."

Food Insecurity: Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire food in socially acceptable ways.

Hunger: The condition where both adults and children cannot access food consistently and have to reduce food intake, eat poor diets, and often go without any food. Hunger is also defined as the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food.

--Murphy p.5 and Bradford p.2

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Most schools offer free or reduced-price lunch, and many also offer breakfast. However, the latter programs tend to have lower participation: Not only are children reluctant to stand out as "free breakfast kids," they also have difficulty getting to school early enough to eat in the cafeteria before school starts. School breakfasts are usually served too early for children to make it if they take the bus to school (Food Nutrition and Action Center, 2010). In schools that serve breakfast, the majority of K-8 teachers favor moving the breakfast to the classroom and serving it to all children, thus eliminating both the stigma issue and the logistical issue of early school arrival (Share Our Strength, 2010).

Meals during evenings, weekends, and school vacations are a different matter. To...