I’m Not A Statistic

Even a cursory review of recent news will show that the number of people who are hungry in the United States has increased dramatically over the past three years.  I met yesterday with some volunteers who are working with our Mission Backpack program and one of them mentioned that one of our elementary schools (we have 51 in our district) has gone from 21% free and reduced price meal participation to 52% since 2007.  The school, located in an area with a lot of manufacturing and construction employment, is a snapshot of what is happening across the United States.

Children are hungry through no fault of their own.  While kids are usually hungry because their parents are struggling financially and spending the bulk of their income keeping a roof over their family’s head, some kids are hungry because the adults in their household are impaired, or irresponsible, or neglectful or abusive. 

The reality is it doesn’t matter why.  It just matters.  It matters because hungry kids have difficulty concentrating and learning.  They miss more days of school because of illnesses.  They don’t sleep well and are not prepared for learning because of it. 

Even if your kids are grown and gone, it matters because every child who fails to succeed in school has the potential to cost all of us more throughout their lives.  It matters because many of these hungry kids won’t be able to fill jobs as nurses and teachers and firefighters and police officers.   

It matters because hungry kids aren’t a statistic.  They’re hungry. 

Find out what you can do.  Call your local elementary school and find out if they have a program to support high risk kids with weekend food.  If they don’t, start one.  It matters.

What’s On My Plate?

The US Department of Agriculture has a simple to understand graphic that shows us the types of foods we need to eat and what proportions we should consume

Green for vegetables

Purple for proteins

Red for fruits

Brown for grains

Blue for dairy

Half our plate should be veggies and fruits, with veggies a bit more than fruit

Protein should be not quite one quarter of the plate

Grains should be a bit more than one quarter of the plate

Dairy should be a small amount, less than protein

Water should be the drink of choice

And little to no added fat, salt or sugar

A “serving” is half a cup for most food types, again with the proportions as above.  A serving of meat, chicken or fish is about the size of a deck of cards or the palm of an adult’s hand.

Yes it’s simple, maybe simplistic, but it is something a kindergartner, or someone who can’t read, can understand and put into practice.  The rest of us can spend a lot of time learning what to eat in great detail, but this My Plate gives us a place to start.  And that is the point – you have to start somewhere to get on the road to healthier eating.  It might be smart to start with something simple, like My Plate.

See http://www.choosemyplate.gov/  for more information.

Growing for Good

There is a lot of activity and conversation about local food, in particular about community gardens.  Most community gardens involve neighbors working a plot of land loaned for that purpose.  Those who put in the work share the food that is grown and often give the excess to soup kitchens or food pantries.  Sometimes the gardens are on a church or school property and provide nutrition, education, and recreation for the participants as well as the members or students. 

Ordinances and regulations about community gardens range from non-existent to detailed and controlling.   Some municipalities just say "No" rather than write a reasonable ordinance that would detail what is required to establish and maintain a garden.  If you're thinking about establishing a community garden, talk first with your local zoning staff to find out what is required.

Many municipalities are getting in the act, planting gardens in their green spaces.  Some take it to a higher level, planting not only to make the food available for eating but also using the plants as landscaping in flower beds and planters around the city.

Growing a garden is a lot of work for a single homeowner or family.  But coming together with neighbors to work a garden, and sharing information and the food grown, brings neighbors together, gives great satisfaction to those involved and even to those who are living nearby a community garden.

Not much is more beautiful than a well tended garden planted with a variety of food that feeds the eyes, the stomach and the soul.

Mission Backpack

Do you know that 34,000 of the 69,900 kids in Greenville County schools receive free or reduced price meals at school?   Sadly many of these same kids often don’t have much to eat at home at night or on the weekends.

This fall Loaves & Fishes will launch Mission Backpack.  Working with generous sponsors in our community, three elementary schools will receive food for 25 of their most at risk students to take home each weekend. 

Sponsors are responsible for obtaining the child friendly shelf stable food by purchasing or recruiting donations of specific foods.   Volunteers are needed to shop for food and to inventory food on hand each week.  Additional volunteers are needed to back the bags that will go home with the children on the last day of school each week.  Delivery drivers will bring the packed bags to the schools on mutually agreed-upon dates.

Although there are backpack programs in a number of schools in Greenville County, more sponsors are needed.  Sponsors can be churches, civic groups, businesses or professional organizations – any group that has a heart for hungry kids.

Please contact Loaves & Fishes at 864-232-3595 to learn how your group can become a sponsor or get teamed up with others to help feed hungry kids.

Learning On Empty

One out of every four children in the United States is hungry.  Not just hungry because it’s been four hours since breakfast: hungry because it’s been since lunch on Friday.

Far too many children are not getting much to eat at night and on the weekends.  These are children who depend on meals at school, breakfasts and lunches, to provide 10 out of 21 regular meals each week.  These aren’t kids who are neglected by uncaring parents.  These are kids whose parents are struggling to keep a roof over the family’s head and heat on in the winter.  There isn’t much left of a small paycheck once those items are taken care of.

The challenge of hunger is big because food is a daily requirement.  Not being able to afford enough food places a huge burden on families.  Even families that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps) benefits typically run out of that funding in 2 ½ weeks.  Emergency food pantries provide food to take home, but each one operates differently and gives out varying amounts of food.  This forces families to spend time going to several sources to obtain enough food.  And that assumes that there are places to get food that can be accessed when families are able to get there.

How can we expect children to learn and thrive on empty tummies?  If education is the key factor in building a self sufficient individual, we must make hungry kids a thing of the past if we ever expect them to succeed.  They cannot do it alone and they cannot do it on an empty tummy.

Do You Know Why Food Costs So Much?

There’ve been lots of comments in the news about the high cost of food.  Just this morning the very hot weather in the central part of the United States is being added to the reasons why food costs continue to increase.   All the factors in play certainly contribute to these growing expenses. 

But there’s one most of us don’t pay much attention to:  the cost of diesel fuel.  In spite of the emphasis on local food, the vast majority of the food we consume in the United States is moved by diesel fueled vehicles.  Whether it is grain being harvested on a farm, tomatoes being trucked from California to South Carolina, or ingredients being delivered to a food processor while a truck picks up the finished product, diesel fuel moves all of it.

After Katrina and the devastation to the oil production along the Gulf Coast, the cost of diesel, which had previously been as much as $1.50 less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline, started to climb.  Nearly six years after Hurricane Katrina the cost is between $.30 and $.50 per gallon more than the cost of gas.

Though buying local from area farmers and producers certainly reduces the cost, as well as the use of diesel fuel, there’s no getting around that the cost of food is directly tied to our dependence on tomatoes in January, asparagus in August and peaches in December, all of it arriving at our local market thanks to diesel fuel.

An Answer to South Carolina’s Obesity Challenge

By now you may have heard that our new Miss South Carolina was once a chubby teen.   It was her doctor’s intervention that got her attention.  The pain in her legs, he told her, was directly attributable to her weight.  

Bree Boyce made the connection and made significant changes to her eating habits.  She started an exercise routine.  But, she lost the weight the old fashioned way, over three years.

Two big things are significant here:  her doctor looked her right in the eye and told her that she was the cause of her problem and she lost the weight slowly with changes to her eating and with exercise under the guidance of a trainer.

It is up to each adult to make decisions about what and how much we eat.  And it is up to each adult to make a choice to include more exercise in our daily lives.

The road to gaining weight is smoothly paved.  The road to a healthy weight and fitness is bumpy and steep.  Which road to take is up to each of us.