Nutrition supports learning

teachers and staff started donating food and packing it in cloth grocery bags for the students to take home. Businesses and churches have since volunteered to help fill what teachers have dubbed “bags of hope,” given out on Fridays during the school year and once a week in the summer.

“The idea was to give the kids hope that they would have food for the weekend,” Johnson said.

Child hunger “is a huge, huge issue in Georgia,” said Donna Martin, the school nutrition director in Burke County, which the U.S. Census bureau ranked No. 1 in the nation in child poverty.

Martin went through months of government red tape so the school system could take advantage of the Healthy, HungerFree Kids Act, which went into effect in December 2010. The law provides federal funds to pay for dinner for students participating in after-school tutoring programs.

Serving 3 meals a day

Some, including radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, have questioned whether schools should be feeding kids three meals a day. “Why even send the kids home?” Limbaugh said last November.

But Martin considers the program a godsend, not only for the football team and the other 500 to 600 students it serves, but also for low-paid cafeteria workers who earn overtime four days a week for dishing out a complete supper of meat, fruits, vegetables and dessert.

Students want it extended to Friday night, and, this year, 600 elementary school students applied for 150 slots.

“Times are tough for everybody, everywhere,” Martin said.

Dozens of daycare providers report that they are end- ing their workday serving supper to children who they worry otherwise might not be fed again until they’re back the next day. Many also are sending home fresh fruit, sandwiches and milk by the gallons for nights and weekends, a recent survey found.

Center workers pitch in

“We want to make sure the kids are getting what they need,” said Kathy Alexander, a family child care provider in Lilburn who sends home fresh fruit and vegetables straight from her garden for her chil-