Fear of school vacations for some Portland kids

Most kids go wild with delight at the prospect of winter vacation. However, at Cherry Park Elementary, the prospect of winter break creates a different kind of reaction: one of fear. For many students at Cherry Park Elementary, the school provides the only two meals they eat a day. With more than 85% of their students receiving free or reduced meals (reads as below the poverty line) hunger is a constant that persists throughout every season. This lament is echoed around dozens of Portland’s schools; the numbers are not much better at neighboring Ventura Park or West Powellhurst Elementary.

Childhood hunger has a certain look. Cherry Park Principal Kate Barker and Counselor Laurie Robertson can identify kids who suffer from food insecurity by their attitude as they walk in the door for school on Monday. Hunger looks like emotional turmoil and difficulty concentrating. Hunger in the classroom looks like inattention, depression, anger, and disinterest. Kids suffering from food insecurity at home often over-eat at lunch and breakfast. Teachers and staff witness students stuffing food into pockets and backpacks, hoarding food for later. True food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal is coming from. When the burden of finding food falls to the child, there is a clear and fundamental failing in our system. This shortfall throws doubt on our rank as a “first world” nation.

At Cherry Park, whenever a child is sent to the nurse with a headache or tummy-ache, the first line of response is a healthy snack and a cup of water. Food at the nurses’ office is emergency relief rather than a remedial solution. So I asked Barker and Robertson to fantasize about a limitless budget. In this fantasy I asked them what the ideal system would look like. The first thing on both their lists were free and reduced lunches for everyone. Second, programs like Urban Gleaners that provide consistent relief food. And finally, a solution we hear championed more than we see it in practice; school gardens. School gardens are hubs for nutritional education and a resource of food. Here we heartily agree (see the Urban Gleaners Field of Greens program). Kate Barker thinks heavily about the enabling roll that the schools play when they administer relief food. A program like a school garden, based on Alice Waters Edible Schoolyard model, provides for body and soul as well as instituting a sustainable system.

As it stands now, the food supplied by Urban Gleaners is gone in minutes. A lot of the food doesn’t even make it home— it gets consumed on the bus. And there are children not being reached by Urban Gleaners’ food donations that are not reflected in the statistics about childhood hunger. A large part of the solution clearly lies in a broader systemic change—what is it? We’re eager to hear your thoughts.