Hungry children in our community need your help.

Today, in Albany's school system, some children rely on free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch programs as what could be their only meals of the day. Seventy percent of district students are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals. For these children, such programs are essential and provide the nourishment growing bodies need to learn and flourish.

What happens over the weekend when there is no school, and therefore, no meal programs?

Children who rely on meal programs while school is in session go without on weekend. That's where the generous support of friends and neighbors comes in.

The HATAS Feed and Read Program provides hungry children with a pack of food and an age-appropriate book every weekend throughout the school year.

It's no secret that success in today's world depends on a quality education. Children who are thinking about their next meal are not participating in class in a meaningful way. Studies have shown that as absenteeism increases, overall student success decreases.

Additionally, children from food-insecure or homeless households suffer from a wide range of challenges that make receiving a quality education even more difficult.

• Children experiencing homelessness are sick four times more often than other children.
• They have four times as many respiratory infections and twice as many ear infections.
• They have five times more gastrointestinal problems and are four times more likely to have asthma.

Children experiencing homelessness also go hungry at twice the rate of other children. They have high rates of obesity due to nutritional deficiencies, and they have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems as non-homeless children.

Our goal is to prevent the children we help today from visiting us again in 20 years.

With the generous support of friends and neighbors we have been able to strengthen our community and help build real futures for hungry children in Albany's schools.

For the 2020/21 school year, HATAS will provide weekend food packs and books for 550 students. That's 550 hungry bodies and minds that will receive the nourishment needed, thanks to the support of people like you.

Make today the day that you make a lasting, positive impact in the life of a hungry child right here in our community. Please help us in our compassionate mission. Together we can break the cycle of homelessness and food insecurity that is holding back Albany's future.