When a student from New Jersey said she didn’t have enough to eat, she highlighted a problem at home, which affects about 18 million children across the country.
A third grader from New Jersey started crying in the middle of her virtual class, confessing to teachers and colleagues that she was starving.
“This 9-year-old boy just couldn’t take it anymore,” said former New Jersey vice governor Kim Guadagno, who runs the Fulfill Food Bank.
This heartbreaking moment led an entire community to help, including Guadagno.
“This family received not only immediate food, but provisions for six months,” said Guadagno.
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The girl’s mother lost her job at a restaurant almost a year ago.
“This is happening in your yard,” said Guadagno.
In January, 40 million people lived in a family where at least one adult had no paid work, according to the Budget and Political Priorities Center.
And the number of American children facing food insecurity has doubled from 14% to 28% since 2019, according to Northwestern University and the USDA.
About 80% of families in the Los Angeles school district were in poverty before the pandemic began. Food incentives like this can save the lives of mothers like Sara Swogger.
“My son is in special education. I’m going to cry,” said Swogger. “Having to work at home and do school things is very difficult.”
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President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visited a food bank in Houston on Friday, a place that works twice as hard to meet the demands of a pandemic it is a climatic disaster.
Those on the front line say that the hunger crisis in the United States will be a long struggle.
“Our starving children need two or three years – or more – of necessity,” said Guadagno.