When we talk about the economic crisis that affects many families and children we may see it as a more or less distant reality. But as a teacher in a school in a humble neighborhood, I know many of these cases firsthand.
Many children go to schools without having breakfast, without lunch and without knowing what awaits them at the table at lunchtime. School scholarships for the dining room are no longer available to many of these families, having been reduced between 30 and 50%.
Why in different schools have wanted children not to be left without eating well in summer at least once a day. And the dining rooms still work. There are dining rooms open on weekdays in the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalunya ...
Communities, municipalities and councils have developed different programs "inventing" summer camps and support classes or languages that include a meal a day, with the aim of ensuring the nutrition of disadvantaged children.
AdvertisingSchools open their doors with the "excuse" of doing a summer school, or a language course, even in August. But what many of those children are looking forward to eating.
Money has been invested so that the dining rooms can work and only children from families without financial problems have to pay a fee. Disadvantaged families detected by schools and Social Services are beneficiaries of the dining room service.
The main associations of mothers and fathers of students already warned that many students from disadvantaged families suffered malnutrition, with the health problems that this entails.
Providing these children with at least one meal a day (there are programs that include up to three meals, which children take as a "picnic") is a great social task and a commitment to solidarity.
It is a very sad reality, but a reality that is there. Many school canteens open in summer so that many children do not go hungry. Hopefully we can say shortly that this is a thing of the past, but for now it is what these families live.
