education

Free school meals

Free School Meals: Why They’re So Important for Kids

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The Importance of Free School Meals

You know your kids are hungry when they come home from school. Their growing bodies and minds need fuel to get through the day. But when money is tight, you worry about being able to put enough healthy food on the table. Free school meals can take a huge weight off your shoulders. Having access to breakfast and lunch at school ensures your children won’t go hungry during the day. It also saves you from stressing about packing snacks and bag lunches every morning. Free school meals provide nourishing food so your kids have the energy to engage in class and excel. And research shows that when kids aren’t hungry, they behave better and achieve more academically. This program helps level the playing field so all students can thrive. You want to do all you can to set your children up for success in life. Free school meals are a simple way to give them that chance.

Free school meals

The Benefits of Providing Free Meals in Schools

Health and Nutrition

Free school meals ensure that students have access to healthy, nutritious food during the day. For some children, the meals they receive at school are the only ones they get. Providing free meals helps support children’s growth, concentration, and learning. 

Improved Focus

Hungry kids can’t focus. Free school meals help eliminate hunger so students can concentrate better in class. Several studies show that students perform better academically when they receive free or reduced-price lunches. Their test scores are higher, and they have better attendance and graduation rates.  

Building Community

Eating together is an important social experience for children. Free school meals give kids the chance to connect with their peers and teachers during lunchtime. These interactions help build a sense of belonging and community within the school.

Support for Families

For families struggling with food insecurity, free school meals provide relief from the financial burden of paying for meals. The program helps ensure that children will receive nutritious food even when families cannot afford it. This support can help reduce stress for both parents and students.

Free school meal programs have so many benefits for children, families, and society as a whole. They help promote health, education, and community for those who need it most. Isn’t that something worth supporting?

Free School Meals FAQs: Your Top Questions Answered

Nothing impacts a child’s growth and development quite like nutrition. When kids have access to free, healthy meals at school, it gives them the fuel they need to focus, learn, and thrive. 

Improved Focus and Behavior

Hunger and poor nutrition negatively impact a child’s behavior, cognitive abilities, and mood. Free school meals help ensure that all students have the energy and ability to focus in class. Studies show that providing universal free meals can lead to improved test scores, better behavior, and higher attendance rates.

Better Health and Well-Being

For many children, the meals they eat at school are the most nutritious they have access to. Free school meals give kids a chance to develop healthy eating habits and get the nutrients their growing bodies need. Things like fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins help support physical health and reduce obesity rates.

Reduced Stigma 

When all students receive free meals, it helps reduce the stigma around receiving subsidized or free lunches. This can make a big difference in a child’s social and emotional well-being at school. No child should feel ashamed or ostracized because of their family’s income or circumstances.

School meals are about more than just food. They’re an important part of a child’s health, education, and development. By providing universal free meals, schools give students an equal chance to learn, grow, and thrive.

The Groza Learning Center Explains Value of an Individualized Approach to Tutoring

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Students learn in classrooms alongside 25 to 35 other students in the majority of educational settings, and each of these students has a unique learning style and is operating from a vastly different base of knowledge. This means that teachers are tasked with developing lesson plans that are suited to a wide variety of learning styles and also provide the proper context and background information so that all students are able to achieve their individual academic goals.

While this approach can certainly be effective for all students, it is important to note that the utilization of tutoring sessions as a supplemental approach to the traditional classroom can ensure that students receive a well-rounded education and are able to yield the greatest possible benefit from their academic pursuits. The Groza Learning Center, for example, provides students with individualized tutoring sessions along with the opportunity to work in small peer groups, thereby ensuring that all students are able to benefit from a personalized approach to education.

Individualized Attention Ensures Students Achieve Academic Goals

The benefits of an individualized approach should be quite evident, particularly since a teacher with a classroom of 30 students will only be able to devote so much attention to each individual student on a daily basis. Through the use of tutoring, each student benefits from a strategy specifically designed to achieve their personal academic goals. This is accomplished through the implementation of strategies that take the student’s preferred learning style into account while also focusing on the content areas requiring the greatest amount of attention. Since there is no need to account for the needs of other students, individualized tutoring sessions can be paced according to the specific academic progress of the student.

As a supplementary part of an education, Scott Groza of the Groza Learning Center believes students can gain a great deal from the individualized attention available through one-on-one tutoring sessions. Students who are introverted and prefer a quiet space for learning benefit from the individualized approach but still have access to cooperative learning opportunities in small peer group sessions as well. In addition to the academic performance gains made through tutoring, students also learn practical study habits and strategies that can be applied throughout the remainder of their academic career, further underscoring the beneficial nature of individualized tutoring sessions.