An Apple From The Teacher: The Role of Schools in Addressing Child Food Insecurity In the United States

Abstract

This thesis presents the issue of child food insecurity as one that is firmly within the scope of schools’ domains. Food insecurity refers to a situation in which people lack reliable access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious food necessary for normal growth and development. It remains a prevalent issue in America, contextualizing the lives of 1 in 6 children (around 13 million) with nutritional imbalances that give way to risk factors associated with impaired cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional development. These consequences are severe and long-lasting; even marginal food insecurity among young children can amount to setbacks in school-readiness by the time children reach Kindergarten. When children face food insecurity at home, it is up to schools to leverage their power as the “great equalizer” to ensure that the nutritional needs of all students are met. While educators alone cannot end hunger, they can play key roles in helping to support children living in food-insecure environments, in ways that are conducive to achievement in academics and beyond. This thesis investigates the nature of these roles through the perspectives and insights of those on the front lines of the issue: teachers. A survey was designed and distributed to K-12 teachers nationwide, with respondents sharing insights regarding the nature of their school food environments and the various elements that contextualize them. Results yielded statistically significant findings on (1) awareness of the prevalence and severity of student food insecurity, (2) barriers to formal nutrition programs and informal responses, (3) resources available to food-insecure students as well as teachers aiming to assist them, (4) teachers’ perceptions of their roles and the role of schools in addressing hunger, and (5) teacher-initiated as well as school-based interventions. These results were discussed in terms of their relevance to public policy, yielding implications including: how teachers might be able to leverage their collective knowledge and insight to contribute to the improvement of school wellness policies; how the “Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child” framework for promoting student health and wellbeing can be used to garner the support of community and otherwise external stakeholders, and how a distinct discord exists between types of training that teachers are receive and the types of training that they would like to help identify and support students struggling with hunger.