Back to School, Back to Hunger: How Food Insecurity Shapes Academic Success

September brings a familiar ritual across Connecticut: backpacks are loaded, buses fill the streets, and classrooms come back to life. For the vast majority of students, the return to school is the return to routine. For the tens of thousands who spent the summer without reliable food, it is also the return to a more stable source of nutrition.

WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS

Studies consistently find that food insecure children score lower on standardized tests, are more likely to repeat grades, have higher rates of absenteeism, and are more likely to be identified as needing special education services.

In East Hartford, where the food insecurity rate has climbed to 14.7%, a significant portion of students arriving at school in September have spent part of the summer without consistent meals.

HOW SCHOOL MEAL PROGRAMS HELP

Connecticut participates in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. School breakfast participation, in particular, has been shown to have outsized effects on attendance, behavior, and academic performance in the morning hours.

Community Eligibility Provision allows high poverty schools to provide free meals to all students without individual applications, reducing the stigma that sometimes keeps eligible students from using meal programs.

Our virtual food drive supports CT Foodshare's programming that keeps supplemental resources available and well stocked as the school year begins.

Support our virtual food drive: https://donate.ctfoodshare.org/campaign/the-white-oak-bridge/c598051

#EndHunger #FoodSecurity #SupportEastHartford #CTFoodshare #BackToSchool