Not surprised by the news, child advocate Sheelagh Cooper was elated to hear of the huge response by the local community to save the food programme to feed students in need at CedarBridge Academy.

One of the first to sound alarms of children going to school hungry in the 1990s, this newspaper asked her to reflect on the extent of the problem in Bermuda 20 years later.

She was quick to note that “people didn’t believe that we were starting to have problems then when more and more people were sinking into poverty”.

Like so many other things she said “there’s always a tendency in any community to resist recognising emerging problems”.

“If you don’t see it you won’t feel badly about not doing anything about it,” she said.

“The same was true about the unwillingness by the former United Bermuda Party when they were in power to recognise the desperate need for adequate affordable housing in Bermuda.”

She recalled that “it wasn’t so very long ago that any mention of the existence of gangs was met with a huge pushback”.

“Any mention of their existence was considered to be alarmist and was characterised as exaggeration,” said Ms Cooper.

“Bermuda is not unique in this response to social problems and the effort to shoot the messenger in order to make the problem go away is common in most communities.”

But she said: “For our part we have discovered that it is just a whole lot easier and frankly cheaper and probably more effective to just get about the business of doing something about it ourselves rather than looking to government to deal with the problem.

“That is why seven years ago we just started feeding breakfast to as many children as needed it and when we realised what a difference it made to their schoolwork.”

The programme was expanded “so that breakfast is now available to every child that needs it in five primary and middle schools every morning”.

“We served almost 40,000 breakfasts last school year and because of the expanding need we have been able to extend the programme on a more targeted basis to five more schools by partnering with volunteers from the Seventh Day Adventist Church who deliver the food that we provide.”

She noted that the Coalition for the Protection of Children has been in touch with CedarBridge Academy to offer help to extend their breakfast programme to those who cannot afford to pay.

“Another big source of food that we provide comes through our food storehouse,” she added.

“This allows parents to come and pick up breakfast and lunch supplies so that children can eat breakfast at home and have something to take to school for lunch.”

But she said: “What most people don’t realise is that if there is no breakfast food in the house there may very well be no lunch either and children are often very careful to make sure that school authorities don’t know that their lunch box is empty for fear of having their parent reported.

“Often these children are kept home when there is no lunch available for this same reason,” she said.

“We cannot afford to have this generation of children fall behind academically because they are too hungry to learn no matter what the reasons might be that they have no food in the house.

“There remain many Bermudians who are one paycheck away from having an empty refrigerator and the loss of a job or reduced hours will continue to put many of them in a situation where they need the kind of help that other generous Bermudians are willing to give.”

She concluded: “As you can imagine this increased demand has put a huge amount of financial pressure on the Coalition and in order to reduce our food costs we are making an appeal to schools, businesses and grocery stores to help us collect non-perishable items.

If you can help collect or donate non-perishable food call the Coalition at 295-1150.”

On November 29, 1994, this newspaper interviewed Ms Cooper on the stresses produced by poverty in Bermuda, and the impact on children in poor, overcrowded living conditions.

Under the then UBP Government led by Sir John Swan she called for a review of housing needs for low income families in Bermuda.

She also lobbied for a task force to investigate poverty, and called for a lunch programme to be set up to ensure schoolchildren are properly fed.

In a report on child abuse entitled “Breaking the Cycle” she wrote: “Poverty, hunger and overcrowded living conditions are ‘direct assaults’ on the health and well-being of children.”

She wrote: “These are facts of life of a growing number of children in Bermuda.

“Few people are aware of the scores of children who arrive at school in the morning, having slept in an abandoned car, having had no breakfast and carrying no lunch, or children who live in such crowded and chaotic conditions that they arrive at school having had very little sleep and perhaps been exposed to one of the 1,500 violent domestic situations that occur annually in Bermuda.

“Economic policy and resource allocation have a profound effect on the cycle of poverty and therefore the cycle of abuse.

“A better future for the families most disconnected to this country’s prosperity will require a change in the way Government chooses to allocate its resources, and an increase in the economic responsibility assumed by the private sector.”

Ms Cooper added: “That was then, 20 years later look where it is now and still the question remains — where to from here?”