Before we moved to Jacksonville, I thought I knew what a Title 1 school is — by definition, a Title 1 designation means that at least 40% of students are enrolled in the free and reduced-price lunch program.
Demographically at my son’s school, there are 884 students that receive a free or reduced-price lunch — 64% of the whole student population. Before my son joined the soccer team, I knew what Title 1 was, but I really didn’t understand what it meant for the students inside it.
“We’ve got to work together to keep these kids fed,” Coach Trey said to the small group of parents huddled on the sideline.
He wanted us all to come and talk about pre-game meals, but only about 5 other parents showed up. I listened as Coach Trey listed the obstacles the kids on the team faced just trying to eat dinner, and the list was long enough to weigh heavily on my heart.
These kids are hungry.
For the first few games, the temporary solution was to send money, which led me to reach out to Coach Trey to see how I could become a part of the solution. Like many families across the county, we have a budget and an extra $15-20 a week for meals on game nights just wasn’t in it long-term. That’s when I realized the solution wasn’t simple either — many of these families were already doing what all they could just to survive, and like me, most couldn’t throw down money on food and take then time off work to feed a whole team dinner.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. If these kids don’t eat dinner, they’re not going to perform at their best level.
Skipping dinner for a prolonged period of time can also adversely affect your health off the field too. We all joke about being “hangry” but for many of these kids, it’s a real struggle to hold it altogether when you don’t know if you’re going to eat before the game because you don’t have anything to pitch in for the meal. Once I realized this, I realized it wasn’t just their gameplay that was being affected, food insecurity could also impact their ability to secure a scholarship, whether it be for their GPA or athletic ability.
I am proud to be a part of a community where people choose volunteerism and selflessness.
Almost as soon as I posted a “call-to-action” in my local military spouse group, I was flooded with people that wanted to help. That first game where we had an organized meal before the game, there was a new energy on the field from these boys. They weren’t just there to play anymore — they were there to win.
I am so grateful to all of the military families that stepped up and even got their own churches involved here in Jacksonville so that we could have such a huge positive impact within our city. I am looking forward to the 2020-2021 season so that we can work to expand this into a program that will help find nutritional resources for all of the sports teams and clubs that meet after school during the evening.
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Coach Trey Brown leads the Battle Tactics Academy in Jacksonville, Florida where he also teaches Math and coaches boys’ high school soccer. He’s been playing soccer since childhood and believes you can change the world one soccer player at a time.