More hungry kids showing up for school

Day care providers and teachers work to ensure kids leave full.

While the Bears of Burke County practiced hard, dreaming of a state high school football championship, Coach Eric Parker noticed some players’ energy fading, rather than building.

“We have some kids 220 pounds and muscular who probably need close to 4,000 calories a day, but they were getting closer to 1,300,” Parker said.

Some probably weren’t eating the right foods, he said. But in one of the state’s poorest counties, just outside Augusta, “I’m sure there are some kids going home who probably don’t have food in the refrigerator.”

Throughout Georgia, from day care centers to high schools, officials say more hungry children are walking through their doors as the down economy and unemployment take their toll. In 2010, 25 percent of all Georgia children — 610,722 — were identified as living in poverty.

Nationally, three out of five teachers report having hungry students and say the problem is only getting worse, according to a new study from the nonprofit Share Our Strength.

Though many are struggling themselves, day care providers and teachers are pinching pennies and even turning to charitable groups and the government to ensure their children leave with full bellies and, in some case, bags of food.

Students need nutrition to be able to learn, studies show. But every day, some are arriving at school with hunger pangs, as they found out last year at Lawrenceville Elementary School in Gwinnett Coun-