Safety & Wellness Segment

Pyramid of Needs: Providing Students with a Foundation for Success

Submitted by Barbara Grimm, Founder and President of School Responder, and C.J. Huff, Ed.D.

We all know the four basics: food, water, air, and shelter. These are the bare necessities we require to sustain ourselves – the things we cannot do without. Yet, numerous children across the country lack access to one or more of these essentials right now. This is not only a threat to student wellbeing, but it is also a significant hindrance to student success.

Between 2020 and 2022, food insecurity rose to a whopping 17.3% within U.S. households with children, leaving 8.8% of children in situations of low or very low food security. As the most food insecure state (16.6% of all households), 1 in 5 Arkansan children currently face hunger. These trends are coupled with an alarming surge in food prices at K-12 schools – nearly tripling between April 2021 and April 2022. In response, schools across the country have stepped up their efforts to meet this need.

But food insecurity is not the only threat to student success. Although funding for students experiencing homelessness has increased nationwide following the 2020 pandemic, many go without help. Rural school districts are particularly at risk, serving a disproportionately high number of homeless children, while 88% of these districts lack the funding needed to support these students.

An old African proverb says it best, “An empty stomach has no ears.” Unfortunately, homelessness and food insecurity are just two of many roadblocks standing in the way of students achieving the academic and life outcomes we all desire. Learn more about how your community can work together to ensure students’ basic needs are being met in Arkansas through the work of organizations such as Bright Futures Arkansas and EveryArkansan.