In the Wilson County Public Schools over 50% of our students are food insecure. For some, the meals they receive at school are the only ones they can count on. CHEW provides food for the the neediest among this group.
These children are extremely hungry by Monday morning, having had little to eat since leaving school on Friday. Teachers observe these students as they rush to the cafeteria line, show up early for breakfast, clean their plates, linger around for seconds and ask others for leftovers.
Hungry children cannot live up to their potential. They are sick more often and have difficulty learning.
Wilson County school personnel identify our chronically hungry students for us. During the 2012-2013 school term we fed an average of 472 students. In 2016 those numbers began to drop and continued to do so during the pandemic when emergency assistance funds were available.
Now that those funds are no longer available together with the increase in food cost and rent our CHEW families are struggling. In January 2024 we are feeding 100 more students than last year at this time: over 400 students.
Since 2012 the chronically hungry students in the Wilson County Public School System, at Sallie B. Howard School for the Arts (charter school), Wilson Preparatory Academy (charter school) and at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf have had the security of knowing they have food to eat over the weekends during the school term when they are separated from the school cafeteria. Following our May 20, 2024, food distribution, CHEW has provided over 939,000 meals!