Over three dacades ago I taught third, fourth and fifth grade in a small rural school district. About 70-80% of students qualified for free and reduced lunches. We also offered a free breakfast program before school. Buses arrived twenty minutes before school started to get food in students’ bellies before starting classes. 

That fall I taught a nutrition class on how to read food labels and discern the many names for sugar. Since we had the last lunch period, it was four hours between first bell and lunchtime. With one 15 minute recess break almost three hours into that block of time, kids attention flagged after recess with over an hour remaining until lunchtime. I suggested they bring some small snack: an apple, a granola bar, or something saved from breakfast. They could eat it when they came in from recess to get an energy boost. If what they brought had a label, the first ingredient could not be sugar. Nor could three or more of the ingredients on the list be sugar.

Most of them came up with a small snack item. One girl brought a lemon every day. Except one little boy. He was about the size of a first grader. He never had a snack. I began stocking my desk drawer with soda crackers. They were one of the few items I could afford to have on hand with a starting teacher’s salary. When I learned Michael LOVED marmite, that salty yeasty Aussie spread that makes most kids cringe, I added a jar. Michael would have a couple of soda crackers smeared with marmite for his daily snack. 

One day after delivering the class to the lunchroom, I noticed Michael had not taken any lunch. I never knew Michael to skip a school meal. He was usually still eating when his classmates had all fled to the playground. 

“Michael, why no lunch today?” 

“My mom is picking us up after school to go Christmas shopping and we’re going to McDonald’s for supper.” 

“But that’s not for hours.” 

“I want to be hungry for McDonalds.”

At that moment I realized the school lunch program was not supplementing the meals Michael had at home, they were the ONLY meals Michael was subsisting on. That and a couple of soda crackers with less than a teaspoon of Marmite. 

This is why we need food programs in America. We need food for the Michaels who, without a school lunch, would go to bed even hungrier than they already do. We need food support for all the children not in schools with meal programs. We need supplemental nutrition support for the seniors trying to stay in their homes as taxes rise faster than their Social Security benefits do. Too many hard working community members don’t earn enough to pay the rent, and utilities, and still have enough for ample food. A healthy community takes all of us recognizing needs and providing support.