March is National Nutrition Month — a time to take stock of how many people are going hungry in our area and across the country.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is urging the government to do more to alleviate hunger, and there is some good news — the USDA has proposed new nutrition standards to make school meals healthier. Jamie Bussel is the Foundation’s senior program officer.
“They include limiting the amount of added sugar and that’s for the first time ever that that recommendation is being put forward, they also include reducing sodium and encouraging more whole grains,” she said.
New York City offers free school meals for all students. In New Jersey a bill was introduced last year requiring free school meals. The issue is likely to be addressed again this year.
Bussel said the importance of school meals cannot be overstated. Children, she said, cannot learn if they’re hungry.
“We should be looking at a school meal like we look at books and teachers and desks and all the things kids need, as not ancillary but integral,” she said.
The latest data shows that in the 10th Congressional District, which includes part of Newark, the percentage of children living at or below the poverty line is about twice the national average.
“There are 23% of the children living in households at or below 100% of the federal poverty level in the 10th Congressional District, that’s actually worse than the US national average, which is about 11%,” said Bussel.
Many pandemic-era programs aimed at fighting poverty and hunger are expiring. The Foundation is urging that they be made permanent.