When a preschool teacher at a San Mateo center began to struggle to interact with children, supervisors became concerned. The reason for the teacher’s drop in performance?
She was hungry.
“Our teachers are having to make choices between rent and food and getting to work,” said Heather Cleary, CEO at Peninsula Family Service, which runs nine centers for low-income children in San Mateo County. “Some of our children come with a lot of trauma and for our teachers to also have their own trauma that they’re bringing to work makes it really challenging to provide a quality learning environment.”
