The annual student council food drive begins next week. Hunger is not an issue that one necessarily associates with the Lampeter-Strasburg community, and the competitive overdrive that the food drive often foments tends to mask it even further. But amidst all the strategizing over how to win the ironic prize -- a hot breakfast graciously sponsored by Darrenkamps -- a key fact hides: over the past ten years, the number of L-S students on free and reduced lunches has nearly doubled, from 11.7% in 2005 to 21.8% last year. What a staggering figure! To quantify that number, out of approximately 3000 students enrolled in the District, more than 650 receive free or reduced lunches. According to USDA guidelines , to be eligible to receive reduced lunches, a family of four must earn less than $29,101 per year. That is a reality for more than one in five students at L-S. It’s easy to think that hunger is not a real problem in our community, that food donated next week goes to some
