Odessa America- Area suffers from child hunger

BY GEOFF FOLSOM

Nearly a third of children in Ector County suffer from food insecurity, according to statistics released Thursday. And some in the community are looking to do something about it.

The statistics, based on research conducted using 2009 figures, shows that 35 percent of kids in the West Texas Food Bank’s 22-county service area suffer from food insecurity. Food bank spokeswoman Paige Phelps said food insecurity involves students who are chronically hungry, and can be identified through warning signs like students sleeping in class or showing up first in the breakfast line on Monday mornings.

“It can be behavioral problems, cognitive problems,” she said.

Other area counties had an even high percentage of children not receiving adequate food. In Presidio County, 44.4 percent of children were food insecure, while food insecurity hit 41 percent of Reeves County kids.

Phelps said area officials need to determine why West Texas has such a large amount of students who are hungry.

“There’s a job boom, but that doesn’t mean the jobs are paying enough to feed a family,” she said.

The food bank, which works with residents from El Paso to Terrell, is involved with several programs designed to help feed children. Among these is the Food 2 Kids program, which provides meals to students at five Ector County ISD elementaries: Milam, Burleson, Goliad, Dowling and Zavala.

The program is funded by the Junior League of Odessa, which supplies schools with food that can fit into kids’ backpacks. It’s designed to last them through the weekend. Mandi Higgins, chairwoman of Odessa’s Food 2 Kids program, said they started the program in early 2010.

“We needed something new to start and we felt like kids would be a good direction to go,” she said.

The Junior League is preparing to feed 1,100 kids when the program starts again in October, she said.

Volunteers get together on Wednesday nights to fill bags with products like milk and juice, vegetables like canned carrots, meat items like lasagna and stew, as well as fruit cups and breakfast food like cereal.

“We’re always looking for donations,” Higgins said. “The more money we get the more kids we’re allowed to feed.”

In the summer, the food bank helped children with the FoodFirst program, which it said provided 2,500 bags of food this year. It also works on the Kids Café with the Boys and Girls Club, which provides 66,000 meals a year. Of those, 51,000 are served during the school year and 15,000 in the summer.

@OAschools

Child food insecurity rates by county

Ector: 30.3 percent.
Andrews: 32.7 percent.
Borden: 22.4 percent.
Brewster: 25.7 percent.
Crane: 35.4 percent.
Culberson: 34.5 percent.
Dawson: 35 percent.
El Paso: 37.6 percent.
Glasscock: 25.8 percent.
Howard: 31.4 percent.
Hudspeth: 39.2 percent.
Jeff Davis: 27.1 percent.
Loving: 29.8 percent.
Martin: 21.8 percent.
Midland: 24.8 percent.
Pecos: 31 percent.
Presidio: 44.4 percent.
Reeves: 41 percent.
Terrell: 28.7 percent.
Upton: 30 percent.
Ward: 28.1 percent.
Winkler: 33.8 percent.