Describe the relationship between hunger and school performance

Answer 1

Both short-term and long-term hunger exert negative effects on behavior and health. Short-term hunger, such as when a child misses a meal, impairs the child's ability to pay attention and to be productive. Hungry children are irritable, apathetic, and uninterested in their environment. Long-term hunger impairs growth and immune defenses. Food assistance programs such as the WIC program and the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs are designed to protect against hunger and improve the health of children.

A nutritious breakfast is a central feature of a diet that meets the needs of children and supports their healthy growth and development. Children who skip breakfast typically do not make up the deficits at later meals—they simply have lower intakes of energy, vitamins, and minerals than those who eat breakfast. Malnourished children are particularly vulnerable. Children who eat no breakfast are more likely to be overweight, perform poorly in tasks requiring concentration, have shorter attention spans, and achieve lower test scores than their well-fed peers. Common sense dictates that it is unreasonable to expect anyone to learn and perform without fuel. For the child who hasn't had breakfast, the morning's lessons may be lost altogether. Even if a child has eaten breakfast, discomfort from hunger may become distracting by late morning. Teachers aware of the late-morning slump in their classrooms wisely request that midmorning snacks be provided; snacks improve classroom performance all the way to lunchtime.