Programs combat poverty's effects on student learning

Since Rhonda Dunham became principal of Franklin Elementary School 11 years ago, things have changed.

She now sees students' families living together to save money. She also contacts community agencies that can help parents looking for assistance paying rent and utilities. Every Friday, 42 of her students head for home with 10 pounds of food in their backpacks. Occasionally, she drives a sick child home because they have no other way.

She also sees less parent involvement in the school, but said she knows that isn't because parents don't want to be there. They often don't have transportation or are working irregular hours at more than one job.

Other things about the school have changed, too, including the demographics. Franklin Elementary now has 89 percent of students coming from families who qualify to receive free or reduced-price lunch, compared with around 40 percent 10 years ago.

According to a report from the American Psychological Association titled "Effects of Poverty, Hunger, and Homelessness on Children and Youth," research has shown poverty has a particularly adverse effect on the academic outcomes of children, especially during early childhood, because chronic stress associated with living in poverty has been shown to diminish children's concentration and memory, affecting their ability to learn.

Throughout the Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City school districts, percentages of students receiving free or reduced lunch are on the rise, and have been steadily climbing at many of the districts' schools for the past five years.

A 2004 study conducted by the Rural School and Community Trust, a national not-for-profit organization, showed that in Missouri, students in districts with higher levels of poverty score lower on all sixteen achievement measures of Missouri Assessment Program tests. A 2009 study from the Missouri Joint Committee on Education also showed negative correlation between MAP achievement and socioeconomic status.

The upward trend of more students qualifying to receive free or reduced lunch means something significant to Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri.

"We believe there is a whole new population that needs to know where to get help," she said.

Need for resources

Jernigan said the numbers reveal that many more families in the community are going to need resources to help pay bills and put food on the table, and they aren't families who have needed help before. In addition, cuts to community support programs will exacerbate an ever-growing problem of local families not making ends meet, she said.

The APA report also determined that low-income children find it harder to lift themselves out of poverty because of inadequate education. The problem usually persists through multiple generations.

Traditionally, people could look for help at the East Missouri Action Agency, which provides emergency utility assistance, family support and self-help. In August, the organization was directed to cut its budget, which comes from federal funding allocated to the state, by more than half. It announced staffing cuts, reductions of the agency's ability to provide utility assistance and other services and reduced hours of operation.

While local families may have a harder time finding ways to pay bills, the Southeast Missouri Food Bank is trying to make sure area elementary students are fed when they aren't in school.

According to Lisa Elfrink, nutrition services coordinator for the Cape Girardeau School District, around 100 children in Blanchard, Franklin and Jefferson elementary schools will carry a bag of food home this year through the BackPacks for Fridays, a program through the Southeast Missouri Food Bank that provides at-risk students with a backpack every week filled with about 10 pounds of nonperishable food items.

Program coordinator Amanda Winschel said the food bank will distribute backpacks to students in Jackson's Orchard Drive and North elementary schools. The program will expand to the remainder of Jackson's elementary schools this year as needed, Winschel said. Forty-four percent of students qualified for free or reduced lunches at Orchard Drive Elementary and 30 percent of students qualified at North Elementary in 2010.

So far this year, the program covers 20 elementary schools in Southeast Missouri, and Winschel said another four have made requests for participation.

Backpacks for Fridays

Backpacks for Fridays is new this year at Franklin Elementary.

"We have 100 percent of kids returning the backpacks. It's something that is greatly needed here," Dunham said.

While she said the program has been successful, she still worries about the needs of her students and their families.

"We could use another 50 backpacks if the money was there. Easily. We're just waiting until we hear that we can add more," she said.

Student nutritional needs are also concern at the high school level in the Cape Girardeau School District, but for a different reason, said Lisa Elfrink, the district's nutrition services coordinator. Making sure all the students are paying the amount at lunch they are entitled to based on their family's financial situation can be quite a long process, she said.

A review of data for the Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts shows a higher percentage of students receive free or reduced lunches at the elementary level than at the high school level. Those students don't disappear, but rather they slack off on returning applications for free or reduced lunches around the time they reach junior high, Elfrink said.

According to the East Missouri Action Agency's Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment 2011 report, nearly 53 percent of school-age children in EMAA's service area, which includes seven counties in Southeast Missouri, participate in the national free and reduced lunch program, but school administrators estimate that the number of children actually eligible for the program is significantly higher.

"Hungry kids don't learn," Elfrink said, "so we need to make sure that they are getting what they need."

According to research compiled by Feeding America, a hunger-relief charity, hungry children do poorer in school and have lower academic achievement because they are not well prepared and cannot concentrate.

Winschel said a review of surveys given to teachers for the backpacks program throughout the year show responses that indicate children who are more well-fed than they were in the past due to participation in the program are showing less aggressive behavior and are more attentive in class.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

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