Having breakfast is a luxury for many children from disadvantaged families, some of whom go to school in the morning on an empty stomach four days a week, a survey by a local charity showed yesterday.
The Child Welfare League Foundation found that 40 percent of children from low-income families, socially deprived families or other families in need do not have breakfast every day.
The survey showed that 17 percent of disadvantaged children who responded to the survey had breakfast only every two days, while 10 percent saved their lunch at school for breakfast next day.
Disadvantaged children who ate breakfast on a regular basis nevertheless lacked fruit and vegetables, with breakfast consisting of one or two slices of toast or a bowl of rice with ground pork, the survey found.
The survey also found that 20 percent of schoolchildren did not have dinner every day and 9 percent only had dinner every two days. Ten percent said they saved their school lunch for dinner.
Some 10 percent said they often felt hungry at night and drank water to assuage the hunger.
Wang Yu-min (王育敏), executive director of the foundation, said schoolchildren from disadvantaged families were also disadvantaged in terms of nutritional intake.
Even though the overall economic climate in Taiwan has begun to rebound, disadvantaged families have not yet felt any of the benefits and children from those families are the direct victims, Wang said.
The survey was conducted from Feb. 25 through March 3 by the foundation with 1,536 respondents aged between nine and 12, including 304 from disadvantaged families.
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