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No one likes to think about children going hungry, but it happens every day--sometimes in a place that you'd least expect: the school cafeteria.
At lunch hour at Chugiak Elementary School, no child is going hungry. But that isn't exactly an accident, because this is where the program called Dare to Care got started. Bettsie Wild was the parent who took it on three years ago after her daughter, Lena, brought home the plight of hungry kids.
"My daughter, then in first grade, started coming home unusually hungry. And so I was riding her to eat her lunch. And she told me about a friend she had in class who was always hungry, who never had lunch, so she was sharing. So I started sending extra food for this friend. And a week or two into this and the extra food started coming home. So I'm like, 'Does your friend have her own lunch now? Is she not there? What's happening?'" said Wild.
It turned out what was happening was a school district policy against sharing, mostly because of problems with allergies. But the real problem of children going hungry hadn't gone away. Principal Susan Okeson says she's seen it plenty in her 18 years in education.
"There are many times when you just pay out of your own pocket, because you know somebody is having a hard time. You just pay that kid's lunch. And this is sort of like their secret benefactor," said Chugiak Elementary Principal Susan Okeson.
Wild says, at first, Dare to Care was a project out of her own pocket, family and friends who quietly funded children's lunches. But, in three years, it has grown with community support. It targets kids who don't qualify for
"Some kids need help for a day...a week...a month. Some kids it's chronic. The teachers know who they are, so it's all the time. Every child is different. The numbers change daily for who we feed and why, but it's always kids, who the school district has identified, who chronically come to school with no food and no money and they need help," said Wild.
The program breaks the cycle of hunger anonymously: Dare to Care doesn't know the names of children being fed and the children don't know who is paying their way.
"And frankly, I don't think they care either. They're six, seven, eight-years-old and they get to eat. And they'll go and say, 'I have to charge.' And at the end of the month Dare to Care comes in and pays for their lunches," said Wild.
From its start in a single school, Dare to Care is now in 16 schools across the district. Dare to Care has a fundraising goal of 250,000 dollars. They say that's how much it would take to provide every child, that the district has identified, with a school lunch for a year.
To contact Lauren, call 907-273-3186.
