Article - The Fight Against Child Hunger: The Affects of Hunger on Education.

So, my mentor once told me that he could beat anyone in a fight. I looked at him and laughed. Before me was a skinny, middle-aged man. Small stature. No threat. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. But he insisted:

“Give me anyone. It doesn’t matter. Big or small, I can beat ‘em all”.

He sounded like Muhammad Ali. But I was thinking you gotta be kidd’n me?

He said, “give me Floyd Mayweather, boxing champion. I can beat him”.

Again, I laughed.

“…Starve him for 5 days and I’ll knock him out in 1 round”.

I slowly stopped laughing and started to listen intently.



My mentor was on to something: the body’s necessity for food is an imperative determinate on any one's success. Without proper nourishment, the body becomes ineffective. It can make the strongest, toughest guy into a complete pushover.

That's because if you’ve ever went more than 3 days without food, you’re probably familiar with these bodily reactions:

Dizziness.
Headaches.
Lethargic/Fatigue.
Short-temper.
Intense hunger pangs.
Nausea.

You try fighting or doing anything with those symptoms. It’s pretty hard.

There are children students all around the world who are starving and suffering with these symptoms and more. As of 2015, it's been reported that more than 66 million school-age children attend class hungry. They, like other students, are expected to perform their best in school. But how could they when they’re fighting so much pain?

Because of extremely low family incomes, many students fight for one meal a day, and that meal is often at lunchtime.

Traditionally,
30-45 minutes,
standing in line,
in a noisy cafeteria.

And that’s if they’re fortunate enough.
Some students, in extreme cases, don’t even get that opportunity.

Just like the fighter in my mentor’s metaphor, many students are fighting for an education, but are defeated by the plague of hunger and its symptoms. And when they’re too busy fighting for the most basic necessity, they don’t have the energy to consider school and its requirements.

Proper nutrition is essential for education.
Through research, we see that good-eating (I mean eating well -- that is food that is good for the body) is essential for learning because:

provides vitamins for cognitive development.
keeps children focused.
It energizes them.

It's been proven that when children get enough to eat, it enhances the child’s ability to learn. Hunger hinders cognitive development. What I mean to say is hunger affects the basic cognitive skills needed for learning: problem solving, remembering, and decision-making. Once again, you try solving A “train running at 60 mph” question without food in your belly. You’d be more concerned about solving the problem in front of you: HUNGER.

Antioxidants, such as quercetin, are known to keep the mind focused while Vitamin B12 is known to break down glucose for energy. These bodily necessities can be found in apples and fish, respectively.

If education proves to be one of poverty’s most effective cures, then we need to be aware of what obstacles prevent education.

For more information on how you can help fight poverty and hunger, see www.idreamyouth.org for more details.