As a child I grew up in a family with 6 children and 2 parents. We lived on 5 acres along with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin. Each family had their own home but we spent a lot of time together. Over the years there were periods of time that my family did not have the necessary resources to provide for the 6 children that they had. At times food was an issue and I can remember as a child what it is like to be hungry. I depended on the food that I received from school for my primary source of food. Sometimes, if we did not have food for dinner we would walk over to my grandparents house and they would feed us. This was something that as a child I did not want other people to know. I felt that it was my family's business and not my place to share this with others. As I grew older I began spending time at friends houses and eating their food. I never shared with others that food at my house was scarce, but I'm sure that the adults around me had figured this out.
Once I became a parent it was not even an option for my children to ever do without food. I made sure that I always fed my children nutritious meals and that they would never know what it is like to be a child and be hungry. This was something that was very important to me and I felt was always priority.
As a teacher I watch for students that seem to be hungry. I always have food in my classroom. I let students that come from family's who are struggling know that all they have to do is let me know that they are hungry and that I will always give them food. I have had students that usually never get into trouble, steal food from others. I have found that these students also do not want others to know that they are hungry and that their parents are not providing food for them. Once they become comfortable with the fact that I know they happily take food from me and begin to ask for food when they are hungry.
At my school where I teach we also have partnered with a church to provide backpack sack foods. This program sends foods home with students every weekend so that they will be able to eat while they are not in school. This is something that I am very active in and if I have noticed the signs of a hungry child I always make sure that they are referred to the program. I had one student that ran up to me this year and said thank you Mrs. Holmberg for getting me in the backpack sack program. This was heartwarming to see the excitement and gratitude from this student over simply having food. This is something that all educators need to be aware of as well as be willing to take the necessary steps to ensure that our students are not hungry.
Hunger is a problem we face at some of our Head Start sites, and is not uncommon to find a Director or teacher who is so intent on staying true to their classroom schedule that they refuse to serve children after the cut off time for breakfast or lunch. But then you find one like you, who goes the extra mile. I think the program you participate in is remarkable. I wish you success.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! Kuddos to you and the backpack sack program! I work in a region where there is not a food bank in many of our communitities and food is very expensive due to living in rural Alaska. I wish that we could have programs like the backpack sack program in our communitites. I will have to do some research to see where this is available (and if it's available in AK).
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the backpack program. In my community growing up we had a lot of kids struggling in the same sense, myself included. This would have been a great program to have and I believe every community should have something like this. Especially now a days, times are hard for a lot of families because of jobs and things of that nature. Children should not have to go through the day hungry because it really does affect their learning ability causing them to be stressed out and angry. Some of these kids get the blame in classrooms for not participating or acting out when the main problem is them not having enough food to eat in the day. I love the idea of having something in the classroom for a child that may really need it. It is good to know your children in the classroom because they are not just going to tell you, it is in our duty to dig deep and found out about our children by simply communicating in a honest and loving way. Getting their trust and they will open up to let us know the problems.
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