Free meals good, but hunger is not

Classroom learning is no easy task when hungry. That’s why the state Department of Education’s move to expand its free breakfast and lunch program in low-income communities makes good sense.

What’s alarming, though, is that the program, initially launched with seven pilot schools two years ago, will next year encompass 52 schools, roughly 20 percent of the conventional public schools in the islands. That adds up to, at the very least, several thousand schoolchildren contending with potential “food insecurity” issues. (The federal government defines food insecurity as uncertain access to adequate food.) Sadly, such issues are seemingly guaranteed when general cost-of living figures — the average price for a gallon of milk is nearly $6 ($2.62 on the mainland) — far exceed average pay checks.

For many students, the issues are continuing during college years. An online survey now being circulated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa aims to update a 2006 report that found 21 percent of students were food insecure at that time. In addition to going without meals, insecurity can include meeting daily calorie needs but falling short of standard nutritional targets.

In response to long-standing tales about college students on tight budgets filling up on rice or ramen, one of the students involved in the #FeedTheDegree study, Surely Wallace, said: “If you can’t afford all the sources of foods that have the nutrition your body needs, you could still be food insecure.”

The DOE’s effort is a step in the right direction. Two nutritious meals daily are available to all students at no charge at schools in which at least 40 percent of the student body is eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Under federal income guidelines this year for Hawaii, a family of three earning less than $42,902 a year qualifies for the reduced rate, while that family earning $30,147 or less qualifies for free meals.

Provided in tandem with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, the meals benefit the DOE’s budget, too, because CEP-related meals come with a higher state reimbursement rate than those offered through other federal programs. At the seven pilot schools, the DOE said it saw federal meal reimbursements increase by 30 percent, or by more than $200,000, in 2015-16 from the previous year.

Given such strides in addressing a basic nutritional needs, it’s discouraging to see the federal administration undercutting former first lady Michelle Obama’s push to require schools to serve more healthful offerings as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign to address childhood obesity.

In the interest of “regulatory flexibility,” Sonny Perdue, President Donald Trump’s new agriculture secretary, announced this month a loosening of restrictions on federally funded meals. Opponents of the Obama-era policies have complained that high whole grain and low-sodium requirements, in particular, are stumbling blocks to making foods schoolchildren will eat. Many kids would rather eat heavily processed fast-food, no doubt. But that’s weak reasoning for backsliding on stepped-up standards established through the federal Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

A flicker of encouragement amid food insecurity troubles is buoyed by a sense or awareness and generosity evidenced through campaigns organized by groups such as the Hawaii FoodBank, which estimates 1 in 5 residents statewide will need food assistance this year. Over the past decade, the tally of households served by the nonprofit has steadily climbed, in part, because of connections with its member agencies (now more than 200) ranging from food pantries to homeless shelters.

The food bank reaches into the DOE with its Keiki Backpack program through which kids at a low-income campus may take home a backpack filled with pasta meals, snacks and juices, milk, cereals, fruits and pudding cups and return it empty.

Such community service, combined with the DOE’s expanded free meal program, makes a difference. Students who are not distracted by grumbling stomachs fare better in their studies. UH President David Lassner, meanwhile, has expressed intent to follow up on the campus survey with a plan to put a dent in the problem. Such vigilance is needed in the Aloha State, which is becoming less and less affordable to many of its residents.