I went to Washington DC this weekend to participate in a conference on child food insecurity
with our charitable partner Share Our Strength.
Share Our Strength® is a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. They weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play.
On Friday I took the
Hinges of Hope tour with a bunch of other Share Our Strength supporters
and we visited a few of the organizations that Share Our Strength funds including the Friendship Charter School and the
Mazique Head Start Center.
The Friendship Charter school in Southeast Washington is one of the only schools in DC to offer
breakfast in the classroom. This greatly increases the number of kids eating breakfast as
compared to schools where breakfast is served prior to classes, since it's often difficult for
low income parents to get their kids to school prior to classes.
The school is right across the street from Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, home to would be presidential assassin John Hinkley and where my mother worked as a psychiatric nurse during my high school years when we lived in nearby Columbia, MD.
Share Our Strength funds Operation Frontline cooking and nutrition classes at the Mazique center and we heard from some of the student mothers about how the classes have helped them get better at feeding their kids.
We also visited the Lincoln Heights housing project in Northeast DC and saw some of the great
work done by the Project Blessing community center - including providing clothing and food to
residents.
On Saturday I heard a presentation by
Dr. Marianna Chilton on how childhood food insecurity
leads to serious health and educational problems for our kids.
She said that 17% of households with children are food insecure, whereas the rate is only 9% among households without children.
Plus those that are food insecure have 2-4 times the health issues as food secure households and
households in the food stamp program have better reading and math scores over time, while those whose households who have left the food stamp program had worse scores over time.
She also talked about the recently passed Farm Bill and it will help in the fight against
childhood hunger by significantly increasing funding of the food stamp program.
Food Network personality Sandra Lee, a big supporter of Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale event,
gave the luncheon keynote speech and talked about her own personal history of being on food stamps as a child.
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