Six-year-old Libby Benkins understands the hunger of her classmates. According to the Nebraska Camp Fire Web site, for her birthday Libby requested that in lieu of gifts, friends bring a contribution for Camp Fire USA’s Snack Pack Program. And Libby is not alone in her birthday wishes. Mallory Grote, another Nebraska student, asked for the same gift on her own birthday last August.

In recent years private organizations have recognized and responded to the need for food security by establishing innovative programs to feed children.

For example, The Camp Fire Snack Pack program provides child-friendly, nutritious food for more than 300 children over the weekends. Each child in the program receives a backpack full of food kids can take home every Friday. On Mondays, the children return the empty backpacks to be refilled and distributed again that week.

Why does this program exist? Because professionals involved in the lives of Nebraska’s students have found that the food sent home in backpacks is often the main source of food for the children for the entire weekend.

And Camp Fire is not alone in feeding hungry school children. The Omaha and Lincoln Food Banks have partnered with national and local food manufacturers and distributors to meet the nutritional needs of children as well. Each week, volunteers prepare thousands of sacks of food to be sent home on Fridays in backpacks of students attending select schools in Omaha, Lincoln and Council Bluffs.

Clearly, a need among Nebraska’s school children for food security exists. Area students and private organizations have begun to respond to this need and now it is time for the Nebraska Legislature to further support these efforts by adequately funding the School Breakfast Program.

The opportunity to do this is before them now. In January, Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill introduced LB73, and has since made it her priority bill.  This bill seeks to restore the full state fiscal incentive offered to schools participating in the school breakfast program, allowing more schools across the state to participate.

In 1975, the federal government established the School Breakfast Program, which reimburses schools for each breakfast served. Like many other states, Nebraska stepped in and committed an additional 5 cents per breakfast reimbursement. Combined, these reimbursements pay for the food, meal preparation and staff supervision.

Currently, Nebraska schools receive a lump sum, and when it runs out, which it usually does in April, it runs out.  The problem is, the lump sum is not enough so that all Nebraska schools can participate in the program, and many do not. In 2003, statutory language relating to school breakfast reimbursements changed and Nebraska schools have not been receiving adequate funds for the program.

This lack of sufficient funding has created an obstacle for some schools to offer breakfast. Out of 1,018 schools that participate in the lunch program, only 624 schools participate in the breakfast program. The result is that for too many children, the lunch provided by the school is their only meal of the day.

Missing out on breakfast puts children at risk. Research shows that children who eat breakfast show improved cognitive function, attention and memory. Research also shows that children who eat breakfast at school perform better on standardized tests then those who skip breakfast. The benefits of the School Breakfast Program are invaluable, from reducing obesity and reducing behavioral problems to improving school performance.

Adequately funding the School Breakfast Program by passage of Sen. McGill’s priority bill, LB73, would help Nebraska take one more step in combating childhood hunger and make an investment in the health and education of Nebraska’s children. Now is the perfect time for state senators to listen and learn from a 6-year-old like Libby Benkins who learns each day at school that childhood hunger in Nebraska is a reality we cannot ignore.

Sarah Ann Lewis of Omaha is policy coordinator of Voices for Children in Nebraska. Jen Hernandez of Lincoln is community educator at Nebraska Appleseed Center.