In Oakland Classrooms, Getting Fed is First Lesson of the Day - The Bay Citizen

In Oakland Classrooms, Getting Fed is First Lesson of the Day - The Bay Citizen:

In Oakland Classrooms, Getting Fed is First Lesson of the Day

As hunger and poverty rise, schools step in to provide meals; 70 percent of students now qualify

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By KATHARINE MIESZKOWSKI on October 8, 2011 - 10:41 a.m. PDT

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Noah Berger for The Bay Citizen

Sandra Miranda, a food services worker with the Oakland School District, hands out free breakfast to high school students at Monroe Academy in Oakland, as part of a free meal provided by the Oakland School District's "universal breakfast" program

On a recent Saturday morning, some 60 teachers and nurses from the Oakland Unified School District gathered at Tilden Education Complex for a daylong seminar on nutrition education.

Markell Lewis, a nutrition policy advocate for California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit group based in Oakland, stood at the front of the room. “How many of you have ever given food to a hungry student at school?” she asked the teachers and nurses, as they ate breakfast.

Almost everyone raised a hand.

Recent figures from the United States Census Bureau revealed that Alameda County has a higher percentage of residents living in poverty than any of the other eight counties in the Bay Area. The county has high unemployment and low family incomes, and nearly 70 percent of students in the Oakland school district now qualify for free or reduced-

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/13sYX)