Brains Need Food

Hello! We are a kindergarten, first, and second grade special education class of 12 students. The children range in age from 4-8 years old and disabilities from speech impairment to autistic. In our class we have 88% of the students receiving free lunch from lower socio-economic families. Our school is proudly a loving, warm, community public school that believes in teaching through experience, exposure, and enjoyment.

Being a child with disabilities makes learning challenging enough. Being a hungry child with disabilities makes learning nearly impossible! All students, all children, need to have full stomachs and nutrition to learn. Think about, if you will, our class with special needs...Our students with ADHD working so hard on focusing and concentrating on a lesson. A hungry child with ADHD cannot think or focus on anything other than their empty stomach. Our students with autism working on developing appropriate social skills, but when consumed with hunger, without fault, will react to that primal need. Children that are speech impaired and students with processing concerns become easily frustrated while learning. Need I say more about that frustrated child hungry?

It's very simple. We need food. We need a snack. Our lunch shift is at 10:45 am- how is that supposed to sustain a child until 3pm? It can't and it doesn't. As stated above, a hungry child doesn't learn a drop of their potential. We simply ask for food. As their teacher, I've been paying for snack these past few years with help from two parents but with rise in the price of food, I am humbled to ask for help. I selected healthy snack food from the choices available such as granola bars, pretzels, and crackers. We ask for food, for help in feeding the children, so that we can learn.

We need you to help. We need your support. Our class receives 88% free lunch due to the lower socio-economic status. We have 2 children that are currently living in homeless shelters. We have another 3 children that travel on a school bus for over an hour each way. One child even gets on his bus at 6:30 in the morning to arrive a little after 8am! Breakfast is far gone by then! Our lunch becomes a breakfast and the children are starving by 1pm with yet another 2 hours of learning. Please help us by donating healthy snacks.