Source: WPSD /Â
School is back in session in Murray, and Morgan Carman is noticing a sad reality.
“Our students come to school, and they are starving,” Carman told Local 6.
In the two and a half weeks since school started, she’s counted 50 children who are not getting enough nutrition at home. In the Calloway County district, that number tops 100.
“They don’t know when they leave school if they’re going to have another meal until breakfast,” she said.
The director of the Murray-Calloway County Need Line says this year she’s helping feed 200 students. That’s the largest group of students she’s ever had this time of year.
“It’s very sad when you, most specially, when you’re working in the school and you see a child come in Monday morning, and all they say is ‘When’s breakfast? When’s breakfast?'”
Tonia Casey is in charge of the BackPack program. Any student, for free, can receive a bag full of food to last them through the week. Last year Casey filled more than 11,000 bags. This year, she anticipates doubling that.
“Knowing that no one — a child, an elderly person, anyone — doesn’t go hungry in Calloway County helps me sleep a lot better,” Casey told Local 6.