This past month, on December 14th, 2007, the School Nutrition Association (SNA) and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) announced the establishment of April 2008 as Global Child Nutrition Month.
School nutrition professionals are encouraged to take one day, one week or all month to partner with students and teachers in an effort to raise awareness about the ravages of hunger among children around the globe and here in the United States. This observance is also an opportunity to raise awareness about the solutions to global hunger and poverty.
Among these are the school-based feeding program initiatives supported by GCNF. At any given moment, as many as 300 million of the world's children are trapped in the grinding cycle of poverty and hunger. According to the World Food Programme, 130 million of these children do not attend school; and among those who do, most do not receive meals during school hours.
We may not be able to resolve all sorts of natural and political forces, but GCNF and SNA know that nurturing and educating a child is the single most effective means of breaking the cycle of poverty. And because a hungry child cannot learn or thrive, a society whose children live in hunger will never prosper. GCNF works to help nations build and sustain school feeding programs.
School communities can become a part of the solution to global hunger. Whether helping to raise money for GCNF, the World Food Programme, Bread for the World, or one of dozens of other hunger action organizations-or just raising awareness about hunger in the U.S and abroad—school nutrition professionals are taking important steps toward ending childhood hunger.
