Stafford may rank as a “wealthy” county in Virginia and nationwide, but its student population reveals the extent to which food insecurity is damaging children and families in the county.
by David S. Kerr
GUEST OPINION WRITER
Stafford County, with a population 145,000, ranks 15th in the state in terms of per capita income (there are 134 counties and cities in Virginia), and nationally comes in at 19th in median income. These are two indicators that imply a thriving and healthy economic picture. Certainly not one where there would be a serious food insecurity problem.
However, on the edges of these economic indicators, there is a large part of our population that worries about where its next meal is coming from.
Perhaps one of the most telling indicators, the “canary in the coal mine” if you will, are the number of children in the Stafford school system who receive free and reduced breakfast and lunch assistance. Its grown substantially over the years. These numbers indicate a far more pervasive hunger problem in the county than most people realize. Or care to acknowledge.
Stafford County Schools has an enrollment of 31,722 students. Out of this population 11,761 children, some 37.63%, qualify for free breakfasts and lunches and another 1,123 children, for reduced prices on their meals. That’s a staggering statistic. It means that a total of 41% of our student population come from homes where food insecurity is a major issue in the household.
These determinations of eligibility for free and reduced meals are made based on the size of the household the child comes from and the family’s income.
But the problem gets worse as you drill deeper and look at individual schools and pockets within the county where poverty and food insecurity is more pervasive.
At some individual schools the problem is almost at a crisis level. Over one half of Drew Middle School’s student body qualify for free and reduced lunches, while three quarters of the children at Widewater and Rocky Run Elementary Schools meet the criteria for the program.
These schools, as well as Kate Waller Barrett, A.E. Moncure, Falmouth, and Anthony Burns Elementary Schools, also met the requirements for what’s called the Community Eligibility Program. This program, established under the Free Kids Act of 2010, designates certain schools, based on various local economic factors, as being pockets of high poverty. Yes, right here in Stafford County. Accordingly, this makes every student at the school eligible for free and reduced breakfasts and lunches.
Other schools don’t qualify for the community eligibility criteria, but they come close. 56% of Shirley Heim Elementary’s students receive free and reduced lunch program benefits, while 47% of Stafford Middle School students do, and Conway Elementary comes in at 44%.
Food insecurity, namely worrying about where your next meal is coming from, is a pervasive problem in the county. And these statistics indicate that it is impacting thousands of families in the Stafford community.
The surprising thing is that during the last election cycle it was hardly ever mentioned. Transportation, development, and abortion topped the list of issues in the 2023 county elections, but there seemed to be little if any discussion about our fellow citizens who can’t feed their children adequately.
The standout exception was Ben Litchfield, a Democrat who unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination in the 27th district. His campaign stressed concerns about poverty in our region and specifically food insecurity.
With so many people in this community dealing with serious problems of food insecurity, someone might say that we don’t have our priorities straight.
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Excellent article by David Kerr. Food access is an important issue in our community.
Agreed with Mr Ackermann.
A Tale of Two Cities, a tale of two worlds.
Thanks for writing. Saw something recently where a neighboring county (King George? Caroline?) had a program where all students were being provided with unconditional breakfasts, under a grant. Seems like there should be some similar funding for lunches.
It’s bad enough if anyone in our country goes hungry, but especially our children.
If we truly believe that we are one people, one country – they are as much our responsibility as they are their parents. We tend our animals, our equipment, our roads.
Why not our children?
Food for thought. Thanks again, Mr Kerr.
Meanwhile, Tara Durant voted against feeding kids at school:
https://x.com/pwcdanica/status/1747993403252498619?s=46&t=1Ky4cHg7kUyq-VpuWzp2AA
Did not know that. Thanks.
And yet, this is the lady sponsoring legislation to give special tax breaks to church-run daycares over private, tax paying daycares. And who dropped the ball on changing county policies so that now a meth clinic will be opening next to a private daycare.
Be nice if she cared as much about everyday people as she does following her party.
I guess Monica Gary’s feeling very proud of her 5th column, vanity campaign to divide the non-theocratic vote so that Ms Durant would end up representing us instead of Joel Griffin. Now we all suffer the consequences.
As folks like Mr Davis played Ms Gary’s no-chance candidacy up either for the drama, or because of their mutual admiration.
Oh, and did I mention that Ms Durant’s also sponsoring a bill that will revert local elections back to May?
https://trackbill.com/bill/virginia-house-bill-1082-elections-time-of-certain-local-elections/2188950/
Good for those who have nothing but time (read retired Republicans), not so much for people who work for a living, or want to keep the cost of administering government down….
Well done folks, you get what you vote for…..
Griffin shot himself in the foot with the way he campaigned. He couldn’t do much more than use talking points to get his message across. He blocked Democratic voters who questioned him and he couldn’t handle constructive criticism from people working within his campaign, either. His mantra seemed to be you either fall in line or you get the boot.
That isn’t how a leader acts. It’s not how person with integrity behaves. I know a lot of people in Spotsy are sick and tired of that behavior and IMO it showed back in November.
He KNEW going into the election it would be a three-way race, yet he mostly campaigned like it was two-person one and that was another big mistake. He assumed too much and tried to ride the coattails of others instead of putting in the hard work of earning people’s respect and helping those outside his bubble get to know him.
Griffin appeared to seduced by Big Money thanks to out-of-town representatives who think they know our area better. They talked him into running, promising endorsements and donations in exchange doing some of their bidding if he won. He was willing to go along with their games at the expense of our district.
So, even if he had won, I don’t know that he’d have been the representative we truly need around here. He never struck me as someone who *truly* understood the needs of people in our area. He actively went out of his way to silence people and it cost him.
Need to add: those representatives I mentioned went to Ben Litchfield and Monica Gary before wracking their brains on who to ask next. Ben and Monica turned them down because going along with their proposal would have meant putting SD27 second. Not first, like it needs to be.