BBP to Serve 133 Students as of December
As of December, 2009, BBP will serve 133 students in the Brookings Public Schools and Brookings Head Start, up from 98 students in November.
In early August, the BBP Team knew for certain that it could serve 40 students through the entire school year. For that number to have so quickly surged to 133 reveals at least three things:
- a terrific level of community support for BBP's mission, both in terms of funding and volunteers
- continuing efforts on the part of school personnel and BBP to reach out to parents who might wish to register their children
- (perhaps) deepening confidence on the part of families who are in need of food support that BBP, while new to the community, can be for them a trusted and valuable resource
While the BBP Team is pleased to have expanded its service to so many children, we recognize that an incredibly high number of Brookings students who are at risk of hunger, perhaps 500 or more, remain unregistered and/or unserved. This statistic is based on the number of students who were receiving free or reduced cost lunches through the National School Lunch Program during 2008-2009 (figures for 2009-2010 won't be available until at least midwinter).
While enrollment in NSLP's free/reduced cost lunch program isn't a requirement for a child's participation in BBP, it is an important indicator of food-insecurity. However, it must be noted that many children who are eligible for free/reduced cost meals unfortunately never receive them. Their parents never enroll them, partly (if not largely) because of the stigma so often attached. The total number of food-insecure children will therefore always be significantly higher than the number of children receiving free/reduced cost meals through the NSLP.
