The Policy Greenhouse

Sources: Snap Homepage and WIC Homepage

Food insecurity is something that plagues many lower-income families. This is when a family might not have access to certain foods such as fresh fruits or vegetables (which results in a nutrition barrier). In addition to this, many of these families might not be able to buy enough food to support the entire family, which leads to some children (teens in particular) to forego food in order to make sure that their younger siblings and parents have enough to eat. This leads to those teens coming to school hungry. Many studies have shown that children who are hungry cannot truly be healthy. They are at higher risk of chronic health problems and increased anxiety and stress. They are at higher risk of stress and anxiety because the constant hunger puts the body’s stress management system into overdrive. This in turn greatly impacts academic performance.

In order to mitigate the hunger of these students, programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ) and WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) have been put into place. However, less than 2/3 of food insecure households participate in these programs. This is due to many factors, but one of the most prevalent ones is the stigma surrounding programs such as SNAP and WIC which are designed to help low income households. This negative stigma (that the families and students who use these programs might be lazy and helpless) is only exacerbated in schools where kids are shamed and denigrated because they use a free lunch program. For example, it is not a rare practice for schools to publicly call out and shame students for their unpaid lunch bill, for schools to force students who use the free lunch program into a separate line and refuse to give them hot food, and even to mark students who use the free lunch program with a literal stamp or sticker in order to embarrass them. That is why making it an option for all students to get free meals at school such as breakfast and lunch would be the best move to get low-income students the food that they deserve. It would reduce stigma surrounding programs like SNAP and WIC which would boost participation in these programs and overall lead to more students getting the food that they need in order to participate well in school.