Children need to eat. This seems like it would be a simple, well-known fact of life, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be understood by the North Carolina Department for Health and Human Services. Evidence points out that eating breakfast truly does aid in the learning process for children. After fasting all night, a developing body (and brain) needs a fresh supply of glucose. That is the brain’s basic fuel.
“Without glucose, our brain simply doesn’t operate as well,” said Terrill Bravender, professor of pediatrics at Duke University. “People have difficulty understanding new information, they have a problem with visual and spatial understanding, and they don’t remember things as well.”
Well, it seems like a lot of children in our state will be having difficulty understanding new information.
The News & Observer reported that as of Dec. 31, more than 30,000 North Carolina families have been waiting more than a month to receive food stamps. More than 9,200 of those families have been waiting more than three months for them.
These disturbing statistics ring true because of a program established in 2011 called North Carolina Families Accessing Services through Technology that is apparently still working out its kinks. According to the NC DHHS Website, NC FAST is a program designed to improve the way the NC DHHS and county departments of social services do business. This program was supposed to introduce new technological tools and business processes to help workers spend less time on administrative tasks and more time assisting families — but it is hurting families more than helping them.
With the Medicaid change, the food stamp application pile started to grow, forcing NC FAST to make changes to meet requirements for the Affordable Care Act. But their system is completely discombobulated and backlogged. In early December, the Federal Agriculture Department threatened to take away money the state uses to administer the food stamp program because of “completely unacceptable” delays in processing applications, according to The N&O.
How could we let thousands of children in our own state go hungry for months on end? I understand that they are eating at least something in the meantime, but I can infer that the nutrients they are getting are not sufficient enough for their health.
The part that gets me the most is that they did nothing wrong. It’s sad when adults go hungry, but we usually reason that it is at least partially their fault. They put themselves in that position one way or another. But these children were just born into the world, and they already have to be put through the stresses of obtaining the simple necessities in life. How are they supposed to concentrate on their schoolwork if they are busy concentrating on their next meal?
Not only has this program toyed with food stamps, but it has also messed with a few other important aspects of life, including pay for healthcare providers and the delay of report cards for students. Not to mention the system sent nearly 50,000 children’s Medicaid cards to the wrong addresses about two weeks ago. Now that is bad — really bad. According to The N&O, DHHS said a computer programming error caused the issues.
NC FAST needs to get its act together to be more efficient, but for now, I suggest they rename the program NC SLOW to clear up any confusion that might arise.
Send Taylor your thoughts to letters@technicianonline.com.
