From November 27 to December 30, 2018, CE Credits Online will be donating to No Kid Hungry, $1 for every 15-hour/1-credit course, $3 for every 30-hour/2-credit course and $5 for every 45-hour/3-credit course purchased. No Kid Hungry provides 10 meals to hungry children for every dollar donated. We will announce in our January newsletter how many meals we were able to help provide to students who experience food insufficiency across our nation.
Why did we select No Kid Hungry for our annual charitable donation this year? Because 1 in 6 children in America go to bed hungry every day.
Why is this particularly important to teachers and schools? Because the effects of child hunger in America has been shown to affect children’s cognitive and psycho-social development.
The 1998 Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy study shows that there is a link between nutrition and cognitive development, providing evidence that the brain’s ability to develop can be negatively impacted when adequate nutrition is not available. The key findings from the study include:
- A child not getting enough to eat on a regular basis can delay brain development and the child’s ability to learn. The longer food insecurity continues, the greater chance of cognitive delays.
- Low levels of iron, which is detected in nearly a quarter of low-income children and is a key concern with child hunger in America, is linked with impaired cognitive development.
- Low-income children that come to school hungry have lower scores on standardized tests than low-income children that arrive at school well-fed.
- When nutrition is improved, the effects of food insecurity can be treated.
- When nutrition is improved, the effects of food insecurity can be treated.
Hunger is a problem that primarily affects low-income families. In 2016 the federal poverty level was $24,300 for a family of four. Over 40 million people lived in poverty in 2016- almost 13% of all Americans and 13 million were children. The poverty level is the minimum amount of money needed to provide food, shelter, and clothing. However, those families making even twice that are still considered low income, and most likely struggle to put food on the table. More than 13 million children in the U.S. don’t know if they’ll have food when they get home.
Children who do not have adequate access to healthy foods may experience social and learning delays.
Here is a list of all the states and the percentage of children under age 18 living in households that experienced limited or uncertain availability of safe, nutritious food at some point during the year.
Alabama – 24.1%
Alaska – 19.6%
Arizona – 24%
Arkansas – 25%
California – 20.7%
Colorado – 16.5%
Connecticut – 16.7%
Delaware – 17.3%
District of Columbia – 23.6%
Florida – 22.7%
Georgia – 23.2%
Hawaii – 20.1%
Idaho – 17.6%
Illinois – 17.3%
Indiana – 19.1%
Iowa – 16.7%
Kansas – 19.2%
Kentucky – 20%
Louisiana – 23.4%
Maine – 21.4%
Maryland – 16.3%
Massachusetts – 13.5%
Michigan – 18%
Minnesota – 13.8%
Mississippi – 26.3%
Missouri – 18.6%
Montana – 18.8%
Nebraska – 18.3%
Nevada – 22.4%
New Hampshire – 12.9%
New Jersey – 14.9%
New Mexico – 25%
New York – 19.4%
North Carolina – 22.6%
North Dakota – 9.4%
Ohio – 21.9%
Oklahoma – 22.6%
Oregon – 22.5%
Pennsylvania – 17.9%
Rhode Island – 18.1%
South Carolina – 20.7%
South Dakota – 18%
Tennessee – 21.1%
Texas – 23.8%
Utah – 16.4%
Vermont – 15.7%
Virginia – 14.4%
Washington – 19%
West Virginia – 20.8%
Wisconsin – 17%
Wyoming – 16.9%
Federal nutrition programs help a lot of families in the U.S. Some of these programs include: SNAP, WIC, and the national school lunch program. These are life savers for a lot of families. 59% of food-insecure families participated in at least one of these programs in 2016. No Kid Hungry supports these federal programs but focuses on programs for your students particularly. They support the school breakfast program, the summer meals program, and the afterschool meals program.
5 out of 6 kids who rely on free or reduced-price school meals aren’t getting those meals during the summer. No Kid Hungry is helping community leaders prepare summer meal sites. The national summer meals program reaches just 16% of the children who need help when school is out of session, but No Kid Hungry hopes to help more children by spreading awareness and advocation for these children and their situation.
For more information about No Kid Hungry, visit their website.
Let’s End Childhood Hunger Together, Take the Pledge.
For more information or to donate please go to https://www.nokidhungry.org