My Turn: Childhood nutrition must be a priority

May 12, 2008

Rekha Basu's April 26 column titled "Nation's priorities are out of order" has prompted me to add my own beliefs on the subject of our nation's priorities. I begin with a question for our federal and state governments.

"Why is the assurance of nutritious food for children and those who bear and care for them not your highest priority?" How can it not be, given that food is the most elemental of human needs?

If the problem of poverty is too large for individual families, or state or the federal governments to remedy, why is it that at the very least the assurance of the kind of food that builds wonderful human beings, not made a priority?

As children are nourished well, so they become the adults who are more capable of nourishing the next generation. This is a moral imperative as well as an economic one. "Kids who don't eat (well) don't learn (well)" is a founding belief of two nonprofit organizations I am involved with: the Vermont Foodbank, and the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, both of which would love to go out of business because their missions were fulfilled.

The mission of the Vermont Foodbank is to "gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships that will end hunger in Vermont." The Foodbank gathers provisions and supplies them to food shelves, and other food distribution centers which in turn feed Vermonters who need to eat and do not know where else to turn. The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger works to see that eligible families in need of food fully participate in the federal nutrition programs. These include WIC, a program for women infants and children, Food Stamps, School Breakfast and Lunch, Summer Meals, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Of course, even if all eligible families in the state of Vermont, or in any other state, took full advantage of these programs, the need would still be there because of the shockingly low level of income at which families are cut off from these outdated and underfunded programs.

Children depend on us to provide them with adequate access to the best kinds of food, to act as the building blocks for their future selves. As individuals, and as a nation, we must make the assurance of this food for all children and those who bear and care for them a national priority. And, we must do this now.

For more information on the impact of childhood hunger, listen to the excellent podcast of Vermont Public Radio's program "Switchboard" dated May 24, 2007, on its Web site. Host Fran Stoddard interviewed Dr. Deborah Frank, pediatrician and director of the Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center and Robert Dostis, director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger.

I want to offer strong congratulations to our Vermont Legislature for passing the bill that will make Vermont the fourth state in the nation to offer free school breakfast to all low-income students.

Margie Stern of Shelburne is a board member of the Vermont Foodbank and a member of the Chittenden County Hunger Task Force.

May 12, 2008

Press Room