FoodTank Blog

Every year, nations around the world celebrate World Food Day on October 16th. On this day, organizations rally around to make a statement on the eradication of hunger within their locales. Many school-age children across the globe depend on school feeding programs for morning and mid-day meals. School feeding programs incentivize parents to keep children in school and provide students the essential nutrients to stay healthy and able to learn. School feeding programs have a long history as a social protection tool. The provision of meals in schools was one of the first public welfare programs worldwide and among the first interventions to be widely delivered through the education sector. Evidence shows that these programs support the development potential of children and offset lost income for struggling families. With children fed at school, families are better positioned to navigate financial hurdles, and in doing so, generate large-scale economic growth nationally. When feeding prog...

In 2017, the Food Security Information Network reported that over 120 million persons from 51 countries researched faced acute levels of hunger and other food insecurities.   While America may not appear to have the kind of hunger that is pervasive in other countries, that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. Feeding America reports that more than 35 million people faced hunger in the United States, including more than 10 million children. A household that is food insecure has limited or uncertain access to enough food to support a healthy life. Since children and adolescents are more likely to face food insecurity than any other group in the United States, the approach to ensuring food security is important. As politics and policymakers are still grappling with food insecurities, technology may come in handy to solve this conundrum. Food insecurity is defined by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life ...

To be classified as food secure, the United States Department of Agriculture posits that a household must “have consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living”. Conversely, households without this guarantee face various levels of food insecurity. USDA monitors the extent and severity of food insecurity in the U.S. A report published in 2019 by the agency analyzed several facts about food insecurity in the United States. Here are ten quick but surprising takeaways from that report. 1. About 20% of American families that are food insecure at any time during the year experienced the associated conditions rarely or occasionally—in only 1 or 2 months of the year. 2. About a quarter of food-insecure families and one-third of those with very low food security experienced occasional or episodic food shortages which occurred nearly every month. 3. On an average level, American families that lacked food were actually food insecure for a combined time period of ...

Brooklyn-Curtis Bay is a neighborhood that’s in need of some serious improvement. Residents stand a 1 in 9 chance of becoming a victim of a crime, a figure that’s getting worse with each passing year. The unemployment rate is 208% higher than the US national average, while the median household income stands at $30,643. FoodTank is planning a Four-Day Feeding Program in Curtis Bay Middle School Baltimore. This school is located in West Bat Avenue, MD. Background Information Students at this school are making less academic progress from one grade to the next compared to students at other schools in the state. Low progress with low test scores means students are starting at a low point and are falling even farther behind their peers at other schools in the state . Test scores at this school fall far below the state average (7% for English and 5% for Maths as compared against the state average of 43% for English and 33% for maths). This suggests that students at this school are likely not ...