Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apartments
Classifieds
Shopping
More Indiana children faced hunger and poverty issues this year than last, according to data released by the Indiana Youth Institute this week.
While the percentage of children living in poverty in Allen County has risen slightly since 2004, from 16 percent to 16.8 percent, the institute said the rising number of public school students receiving free and reduced-price lunches indicates an increasing problem.
Students from families with annual incomes less than $26,845 qualify for free lunches, and since 2000, the number of children involved in the lunch program has increased 40 percent, according to the Indiana Youth Institute.
The number of children receiving reduced-price lunches has risen 30 percent during that time period. Students from families with incomes between $26,845 and $38,203 qualify for reduced-price lunches.
Hungry children are more likely to receive lower grades, be suspended or expelled, suffer from depression and have suicidal thoughts, said Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Youth Institute.
The most recent numbers show that hunger is not limited to unemployed or homeless people. A quarter of working families in Indiana are considered low-income, and the majority of Indiana families who receive food stamps have one of more workers in them, Stanczykiewicz said.
As the numbers have risen, so too have the number of working poor seeking aid from Community Harvest Food Bank – many families that have never needed assistance before, Executive Director Jane Avery said.
“I have never seen it this tough,” said Avery, who has been with the food bank for more than 11 years.
About 77 percent of Indiana households receiving food stamps include at least one worker, and 25 percent of those households have two or more workers, according to the Indiana Youth Institute.
Nearly half the food stamp recipients in Indiana are children under 18, one of many statistics that trouble Avery.
“You look at hungry kids and the percentages, and you have to remember, every percent has a face with it,” she said.
Get Nichols, director of elementary administration for Fort Wayne Community Schools, said hunger is just one of many issues facing children in poverty.
More than half of FWCS students qualify for free lunches, and the district also sees that those children sometimes aren’t properly dressed for cold weather and may have to fend for themselves after school, Nichols said.
What’s more, low-income families tend to choose the cheapest foods, which are generally higher in calories and carbohydrates, she said.
Breakfast and lunch programs at the school have helped, as has Blessings in a Backpack, a national program for low-income students at Adams Elementary School that gives children bags of healthy foods to see them through the weekend.
The program began as a pilot program last spring at Adams, which has the highest percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches in the district – about 95 percent.
“It does affect good attendance at Adams,” Nichols said.
Organizers of the program hope to find sponsors for it at other schools that, like Adams Elementary, suffer from higher-than-average poverty numbers, she said.
aturner@jg.net
