Editor: Jennifer Garcia
Multimedia: Katie Pappas
Community Manager: Attie Pearsall
Data Journalist: Asya Rojas
Food and Students
Have you very wondered if your grades in school had anything to do with your
hunger? These statistics can start to from very young, as early as one’s childhood. In
Fairfax County there is a youth survey that is conducted annually for all of the students
in sixth, eighth, tenth and twelfth grade. The survey includes questions that asked
students questions such as, “How many times has one gone hungry in the past 30 days?”.
According to the youth survey itself it reports, “One out of five students reported going
hungry at least some of the time in the past 30 days.”
Most of these teens affected in these Fairfax schools are Hispanic and/or African
American, and live in single-parent homes. Kids not getting the necessary nutrition is
only part of the problem. According to capitalareafoodbank.org, the U.S. Census ACS
2006-2008 found that about 13 percent of people in Northern Virginia are at risk of
hunger, and 1 in 6 children in Northern Virginia were at risk of hunger.
The bigger problem that we are faced with when looking at hunger is that it is an
issue that directly affects education. A student’s hunger has been correlated with skipping
school and lower grades. According to the Nutrition Cognition Initiative, continuous low
nutritional intake affects factors such as motivation and attentiveness, which can have
a negative effect on developmental processes such as learning and students attain lower
scores on standardized achievement tests. The Fairfax County Youth Survey not only
asks the question of if they have gone hungry in the past 30 days, but it also surveys the
grades that they have gotten and how many days of school they have missed or skipped.
When looking at the surveys conducted in the past few years, there is no question
about whether food is important not only for our daily consumption, but also for that push
needed to succeed and experience education to the fullest.
Charlie White a six-year-old second grader at Oakton Elementary School enjoys
his lunchtime. “I really think lunchtime is my favorite! Sometimes my mom makes my
lunch and sometimes if I am good I can pizza on some school days.”
Charlie doesn’t like his vegetables as much he says, “ I don’t really eat all my
vegetables. I do like the apples my mom packs though.”
Charles Age 6
References
“Fairfax County Youth Survey.” Fairfax County Youth Survey. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb.
2013. .
http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010-CAFB-hunger-
fact-sheet-update.pdf
http://suite101.com/article/link-between-nutrition-and-academic-performance-
a278743#sthash.VUuF2Net.dpuf
The Nutrition-Cognition Initiative. Medford, MA: Center on Hunger, Poverty and
Nutrition. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 374903) 1994.
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