Food for Thought:
Giving Undernourished Children a Chance to Succeed

Feeding America, a national food bank, helps hungry children through several programs, one of which is the BackPack Program. We normally picture a child’s backpack being filled with books and folders. For some children, a backpack holds something even more important than books—food. The concept was developed in Little Rock, Arkansas, after a school nurse noticed hungry students were coming to her with stomachaches and dizziness. Today, 1,600 BackPack Programs in 41 states and Washington, D.C. send food home with children for the weekend when school lunches are not available. Every Friday, BackPack bags of child-friendly, nonperishable, vitamin-fortified food are discreetly distributed to 70,000 children who have been identified as being hungry.

 In addition to the obvious problem of just feeling hungry, inadequate nutritional intake impairs cognitive development, resulting in a diminished capacity to learn. Hungry children exhibit higher levels of aggression, hyperactivity, and anxiety, as well as low self-esteem. Their overall health status is compromised; they have more stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, and fatigue, and they are more likely to be hospitalized.

My platform, “Food for Thought,” is centered on preventing the risk to developing minds and bodies that lack of nutrition causes. The school program that I have developed is “Kids Food BANK.” Through an interactive presentation, I share with children the consequences of inadequate nutrition, and then I set up challenges for classes to help the hungry by bringing their coins and placing them in large clear plastic jars so they can see how their contributions are growing. Their donations benefit the BackPack program. The act of children helping other children is phenomenal; the process builds character in those who are giving while it benefits those in need.

I am serving as the ambassador for Harvest Texarkana, the anti-hunger organization in my community. In addition to making presentations in schools, packing BackPacks with food, and attending fund-raisers, I have produced and anchored a mini-documentary that is shown to school groups, organizations and businesses. The video explains how food banks work and details the dangers of childhood hunger. In the Dallas area, I am associated with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), serving thirteen North Texas counties. I have personally raised over $700 by conducting an online Virtual Food Drive to benefit NTFB. All of these activities are my way of contributing to help hungry children and others have a basic necessity of life; they deserve it. Hunger doesn’t take the weekend off.

Find ways to donate on my links page.