Ways to combat child hunger – Opinion

In 2023, more than 2.1 million children across Canada were food insecure.

This statistic underscores a disturbing reality and represents a barrier to education and well-being. Access to food is essential for growth and every child deserves the chance to succeed.

As an educator, I see first-hand how hunger not only affects physical health, but also impairs cognitive development, academic performance, and emotional stability.

By providing our children with nutritious meals on a regular basis, we can ensure they have enough energy and focus to succeed in school and everyday activities. Understanding this important issue and investing in the fight against child hunger not only helps individual children, but also strengthens communities and enables them to build healthy and successful futures.

I am grateful to be able to partner with President's Choice Children's Charity (PCCC) as the organization fights childhood hunger and teaches children how to build healthy eating habits.

The charity runs several high-impact programs that raise money to fight childhood hunger. Each year, its Power Full Kids program provides meals and nutrition education to nearly one million students in over 2,200 schools.

During the Get to Give Days campaign, which runs September 12-15, Loblaw will donate a portion of the proceeds from every purchase of President's Choice products to the charity.

Empowering young people is vital to our future and we all need to do our part by not only providing students with nutritious food, but also equipping them with the skills to grow and prepare healthy, wholesome meals.

Here are some things I learned firsthand about the connection between healthy eating and learning:

Hunger impairs children's cognitive abilities. Well-nourished children are more likely to perform better in school, improve their behavior, and have higher school attendance, which contributes to their overall development and future success.

Hungry children are 27% more likely to experience anxiety, according to program evaluations. For many, school meals may be the only reliable source of nutrition they have each day. By ensuring healthy food is available at school, we can help students focus and succeed in class.

Nutrition education is essential to change behaviour – children need 50 hours of nutrition education to change their eating habits. As well as providing food, we also need to ensure children are given accurate and easily accessible information about the benefits of a healthy diet, eating a varied diet and the value of it. Strengthening a child's relationship with food starts with learning.

By combining healthy meals and snacks with fun activities and resources every day, we can teach children the skills to grow and cook. Activities like involving students in meal preparation can support the development of important life skills and provide a sense of belonging.

Karla Lockwood is a teacher at École KLO Middle School in Kelowna.