Students Too Hungry to Learn: A Challenge We Can Solve
By Dennis Van Roekel, President, National Education 
Association and Billy Shore, Founder and CEO, Share Our Strength.
Hunger can be found in every corner of the country, affecting one in five children, and this problem often plays out in the classroom. Hungry children struggle to concentrate in class, visit the school nurse with daily headaches and stomach aches, and may act out because they are hungry.
In fact, problems are so severe that a new study shows that teachers spent $37 a month buying food for hungry students, up from $26 a month in 2012.
Share Our Strength’s annual nationwide poll of K-8 public school staff finds that three out of four teachers and principals reported students regularly coming to school hungry. Half of teachers surveyed say hungry children in their classroom is a serious issue, the highest level measured in the four years of conducting this research.
Educators see the issue of hunger as a priority and about one out of two teachers and principals are willing to advocate for breakfast legislation to increase access to the morning meal.
We know that hungry children can’t learn. They feel sick, get distracted and start to fall behind. We need to rally together to end child hunger.
Fortunately, we know that a critical ingredient to ending child hunger is already in place; school
Association and Billy Shore, Founder and CEO, Share Our Strength.Hunger can be found in every corner of the country, affecting one in five children, and this problem often plays out in the classroom. Hungry children struggle to concentrate in class, visit the school nurse with daily headaches and stomach aches, and may act out because they are hungry.
In fact, problems are so severe that a new study shows that teachers spent $37 a month buying food for hungry students, up from $26 a month in 2012.
Share Our Strength’s annual nationwide poll of K-8 public school staff finds that three out of four teachers and principals reported students regularly coming to school hungry. Half of teachers surveyed say hungry children in their classroom is a serious issue, the highest level measured in the four years of conducting this research.
Educators see the issue of hunger as a priority and about one out of two teachers and principals are willing to advocate for breakfast legislation to increase access to the morning meal.
We know that hungry children can’t learn. They feel sick, get distracted and start to fall behind. We need to rally together to end child hunger.
Fortunately, we know that a critical ingredient to ending child hunger is already in place; school