Children’s Rights

The U.S. Claims to Care About Children While Depriving Them of Food

America claims to love and protect children, but it’s not true

When I worked in a higher-income school as a school counselor, there were still pockets of poverty. One child in particular was a behavior problem and was ALWAYS hungry, devouring every food item offered to him despite being a very small fourth grader.

When everything else failed to gain his cooperation, using food as an incentive always worked. One day, when I was working with him, he asked what time lunch was. When I told him it was in just a few minutes, he threw up his hands and yelled,

“Praise Jesus!”

I laughed. He had a big personality for such a little guy.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Due to certain suspicions, we reported the family to Child Protective Services. The family’s response was to leave the school and the area and not inform us where they were going.

A few months later, we learned the parents had starved this child to death in his room.

While this wasn’t our failure, I will always carry guilt and sadness about his fate.

My only consolation is that while he was our student, the school fed him two meals a day…