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Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Abstract

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Training pre-service teachers often focuses on educating them about issues they will see in their own classrooms. One such issue is food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined by limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (Rabbitt et al., 2023a). This article focuses on pre-service teachers' experiences while engaging in the SNAP Challenge to learn more about food insecurity while also learning how food impacts student learning and motivation. Participants in the study discussed how living off the allocated dollar amount was not enough money to eat a healthy diet. When exploring participants' responses, we often saw the nutritional, physical, and social toll of living off SNAP benefits. Understanding our role as educators, we believe it is essential to create a three-pronged approach to exposing individuals to the issue of food insecurity in public schools. The first prong involves instructor-driven teaching that guides students to bridge experience and practice. The second prong involves immersive experiences that prompt personal reflection. The third prong involves ongoing professional development for in-service teachers.

DOI

10.59620/2644-2132.1196

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