COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — Thousands of Ohio students come from a food insecure household, and a coalition is trying to help alleviate that struggle.
“We know that hunger is a really big issue in our classrooms,” co-founder of Hunger Free Schools Ohio Katherine Ungar said.
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Ungar’s coalition is pushing for the creation of a free lunch program for all students, regardless of their household income.
“When we go to the classroom or when we eat together, we don’t like having these categories of who is free, who is paid, who is reduced,” Ungar said. “The students feel that and that’s really deeply felt by students who may qualify for free or reduced. When you make it universal, it gets rid of the stigma completely.”
Ungar said right now, one in five students in Ohio are coming from a food insecure household and one in three of those students do not qualify for federal free and reduced meal programs.
“We’re talking about Ohio’s future workforce. And so, making those investments now is only going to pay off for us later,” Ungar said. “We invest in transportation and textbooks and Chromebooks. And those are all really great investments. But we need full bellies for [students] to be able to utilize those resources and learn.”