Food Insecurity
A limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the inability to acquire acceptable foods.
- 12.4 million children in the United States live in food-insecure households.
- In Sioux Falls, 40% of elementary students and 35% of middle school students rely on free or reduced cost school meals.
Hunger
The uneasy or painful sensation caused by the lack of food. The recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food. Hungry children:
- Are fatigued
- Are uninterested in their social environment
- Have diminished attention spans
- Are unable to perform tasks as easily as non-hungry peers
Impact of Hunger and Food Insecurity
Hungry children’s energy is first used to maintain their critical organs. If extra nourishment is provided, it aids in their physical growth and finally their social activities and cognitive development.
- Children living in food insecure households are 33% more likely to have a history of hospitalization than their peers.
- Children who are hungry from birth to age three cannot learn as much, as fast, or as well because chronic under-nutrition harms cognitive development during this period of rapid growth of their brains.
- Elementary students who are hungry are four times more likely to have a history of needing mental health counseling, seven times more likely to be classified as clinically dysfunctional, seven times more likely to get into frequent fights, and twelve times more likely to steal.
- Elementary students who are from food in-secure homes are twice as likely to receive special education and twice as likely to have to repeat a grade.
- By the time they are teenagers, food insecure children are twice as likely to have been suspended from school.
A Simple Solution
The BackPack program provides at-risk children with nutritious, easy-to-prepare foods for the weekends. The food is packaged and distributed in bags that children can easily fit into their backpacks and carry home.
- Started in 2007 with 100 backpacks to both Hawthorne Elementary and Axtell Park Middle Schools.
- Currently more than 3,100 food packages are provided at 45 schools across the Sioux Empire.
- Feeding South Dakota purchases the food at low-cost. Volunteers pack all food packages on Tuesdays. Feeding South Dakota staff delivers the packages to schools on Wednesdays. School staff distribute to students on Fridays.
- Each package costs $4/week per child.
- Packages may include: cereal, oatmeal, apples, granola bars, fruit cups, green beans, macaroni and cheese, etc.
- Learn more.