Feeding Futures: Food Insecurity and Education Outcomes

Georgia’s schools have a fuel problem, but it’s not school buses or generators that need sustenance. Instead, the harsh reality is that 22% of Georgia children have faced food insecurity at some point in the past 12 months. 

In Georgia’s already underfunded public schools, chronic food insecurity among students hinders academic success and stunts economic growth. Researchers have already made direct links between income inequality and school performance. Georgia Republicans have supported limited initiatives to battle food insecurity in schools. However, it’s simply not working on the scale that it needs to. 

Historically, participation in initiatives like the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is strongly correlated with poverty, and therefore a lack of educational attainment. The NSLP, which provides low- or no-cost meals to public and nonprofit private schools, fed over 28 million children on an average school day in 2022-23. 

These initiatives do not evenly address the root causes of food insecurity or feed students throughout the year. The NSLP has a Seamless Summer Option (SSO) to feed students year-round, but only 13% of students who qualify for free and reduced meals take advantage of it. The equality gap between students in access to food at home should not exist in a developed nation like the United States. 

In 2022, the number of food-insecure children in Clarke County was estimated at 4,850. Before even beginning to consider the personal struggles that each one of these children faces, we should examine the economic impact of this statistic. In 2010, national hunger cost every citizen at least $542.

Economically, the effects of student hunger constitute a sprawling web of problems that stem from a lack of funding for student meals. When students are food insecure, they’re more likely to get sick, forcing their parents to take time off work and thus inhibiting economic growth. Years later, school missed due to sickness decreases lifetime earnings and worsens health outcomes. For a party so heavily concerned with economic growth and development, Republicans are doing little to combat the problem in our state. In August, the governor’s office left over $138 million in USDA funding on the table, which would have helped feed over 1.1 million children in Georgia next summer. 

Kemp’s office expressed concerns about fiscal sustainability and nutrition for the Summer EBT program because the federal government did not cover the total cost. Even when the USDA announced that it would provide additional grant funding to minimize the burden on states, Kemp refused to join Summer EBT. 

Georgia Democrats, on the other hand, are far more focused on providing universal free school lunches using locally sourced products. In 2023, six House Democrats led by Representative Imani Barnes introduced the “Healthy Start” bill to provide universal free school breakfast and lunch using Georgia produce. The bill, however, unsurprisingly stalled at Second Readers in the Republican-dominated chamber. 

Short-term concerns about budget and the allocation of funds seem to dominate the minds of the majority in the Georgia House of Representatives. Put simply, though, we must look to the long term to realize that by feeding our children, we boost our economy and improve the lives of kids across Georgia. This problem is inherently moral: children in our public schools should not have to worry about where their next meal will come from.

The economic benefits of eradicating childhood hunger in Georgia would be tangible, and a strong policy is the clear solution. In Michigan, where universal free school lunches are entering their second year, families are saving $850 per year per child. 

Additionally, the program’s emphasis on feeding students meals sourced from local farms helps in-state farmers and keeps staff employed later in the year. Universal school lunches have net positive benefits, and continuing to fight their introduction in Georgia is to continue depriving our children and our economy, both short- and long-term. 

When it is argued that taxpayers should not bear responsibility for feeding children in public schools, consider what we would gain from the initiative. A generation of Georgia students would graduate having never worried about whether or not they would eat on school days. Every single elementary school student would enter middle school without the crippling and permanent effect that childhood malnourishment has on the brain. 

As our students enter the workforce, they will be productive and educated on levels never seen before. When those children become parents, they will never have to worry about taking a day off because of a malnutrition-related problem with their own kids. Beyond a simple moral proposition, feeding our children in school has economic benefits that we cannot continue to overlook in Georgia.