Growing Up Poor In America

 Growing Up Poor In America

I loved every minute of this documentary [Frontline Season 2020 Episode 3]. I chose to write about this documentary for my reflection essay because as soon as COVID-19 spread I instantly wondered about the children that were already struggling. I think about the children whose only source of structure is school. Going to school everyday is some children’s only safe haven from their unstable households. 

    I wish I could do more to help these families. My heart broke for each family. I could not imagine going through those struggles as a child. I noticed that all 3 families had a running theme; they are all single mothers raising their children on their own. I feel for the mothers because it has to be a pretty awful feeling to not be able and support your children. I am not yet a parent but I imagine you would want to give everything you possibly can to your children. It would be heartbreaking to watch your children go hungry and not get an education that they deserve. The poorer neighborhoods often do not get as good funding for the children in attendance. 

    I grew up in a small town and my school did not adequately prepare me for my future in the slightest. However, I know that it still could have been worse. The family’s story that touched me the most was Shawn’s. I cannot believe how mature and grown up he acted for his age, it was so impressive. In a way it is sad because he feels he has to act that way because of his situation, so essentially he got his childhood robbed from him. He is such a good big brother to his baby sister and he helped his mom out whenever he could. I actually cried for him when he found out his favorite teacher passed away. This family has a trailer of their own and got some government assistance for food and bills. The mother just has to keep working at the Salvation Army in order to keep her benefits rolling in. 

    Kaila and Kyah do not even have a home to call their own. The documentary did not specify where they were living. They are all living with someone in one bedroom to the 3 of them. Their mom had a job lined up until COVID-19 hit. She was able to get some assistance because of that; but it just had not kicked in yet. They took advantage of their local food pantry as well as food stamps, so they did not go hungry. I really liked how Kyah said that “nobody wishes to be poor. Even though it may seem like it, it just means they accepted it.” Both girls seemed very wise for their age, most likely because they had to grow up faster than most kids due to their home life. The daughters seemed very grateful for what they had, even though it was obvious they wished they had more. It was hard to hear how they are already struggling with depression at such a young age. 

    Depression was also a running theme. Every child mentioned the feeling of overwhelming sadness or helplessness. Laikyn and Miracle also had a home that was theirs. Their mother had a job at a gas station and got some government assistance. It just is not enough to realistically support three people. She seemed to know exactly how to stretch it to get the most out of it and make it last the whole month. Laikyn was struggling very much with school due to ADD. I can attest how difficult it is for these kids to do school while not in their normal routines. I work at a daycare and virtual learning just does not work for most children. I understand that it is what must be done, but it definitely does not provide an ideal learning environment. 

    Miracle wanted to break the cycle and be the first in her family to go to college. I just do not think she comprehends how difficult that will be. I hope she buckles down and does it to get the life she deserves and wants. All of these families were just handed bad cards. Each mother was willing and wanting to work in order to provide for their children. It is not an issue of laziness but an issue of policies and the pandemic. We need more and better policies for these families but to get that we need better funding. These children are wasted potential because they know how to work harder than most and they have big dreams. How can we help them? 

Please support universal free lunches

Citizens of Springfield,

I am writing this letter as a citizen that truly and deeply cares about the children in our community. It is of utmost importance that we take care of our children because they will one day be the lifeblood of our society. As children, we were all helpless in the face of our environments, which basically means we had no control where and what environment we grew up in. If we were born into privilege, we could not control that, just like we could not control if we were born into poverty. We were voiceless and incapable of truly taking care of ourselves. That is why it is our responsibility to be the voice of our children and do everything in our power to advocate and fight for their rights. 

Free Universal School Lunch will provide all children in our community with adequate school meals, both breakfast and lunch, which is sadly a luxury for too many children in Springfield. Many of you are already aware of the free and reduced school lunch system already in place, but may not know just how inefficient this system truly is. One major issue is the fact that there are many children that “fall through the cracks” because of the intensity and lengthiness of the paperwork needed to be filled out in order to qualify for free/reduced lunch. This is even more evident in families where English is not the primary language. No child should be left behind just because the paperwork is not accommodating. This also goes along with the strict qualifications families must meet in order to receive free/reduced lunches. Some families badly need free/reduced lunches for their children, but they barely miss the qualifications, so they are forced to pay for meals for their children (and oftentimes have large negative balances). Creating a system where all children are given free lunch would not only help these families out tremendously, but it would also save the school staff members a lot of time and trouble dealing with the paperwork and trying to get families to pay their negative balances. Another issue with this system already in place, is that it creates a breeding ground for humiliation and bullying because schools are oftentimes guilty of separating the children who need these accommodations from the ones who do not. This is an issue I was forced to experience firsthand.

Growing up with a single mother was very tough, and we struggled heavily to make ends meet. My mom always did everything she could to give us the happiest and most stable life possible, where we would not be looked down on because we did not have as much money as our peers. She did an incredible job and I am grateful that I was always given the best things my mom could give me. Since we lived in a lower-class household, we qualified for free lunches, which lifted the burden off of my mom from having to pay for one more thing for us. This is true, but my school did a horrible job of covering the fact that I got free lunch, so all my peers knew. This was humiliating for me because I tried my best to hide my family’s struggles from my classmates. My school, for reasons unbeknownst to me, decided to put all of the kids that got free or reduced lunches at the back of the line. I am unsure if they somehow needed to do this to make it more organized, or because they were somehow punishing us for being poor by making us get our lunch last, but either way, it was a humiliation I dealt with every single day for years. I know that if my school did something as ridiculous as this, that other schools (not all but some) are doing the same thing. I never want any child to have to experience that kind of purposeful embarrassment, and that is why free lunches would eliminate this problem altogether.

It is our job to be a voice for the voiceless and to be a friend to the friendless. Some of these children feel like they have nobody on their side, but if we come together to advocate for Free Universal School Lunch, they will finally have someone be their voice. The burden of scrambling to pull money together to pay for these school lunches is unnecessary and only adds stress to families that are already beyond stressed. Please join me in petitioning to create a bill that allows every child in Springfield to receive free lunches. It is the least we can do. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.