School lunches keep kids in the classroom, and at home

Francisco Rodriguez de Leon and Giovanna Dell Orto reporting from Guatemala

Media attention around the flood of child migrants from Central America has focused on the growing violence that children are escaping. But there are other, long-standing reasons for children to leave their homes, including sheer hunger. In north eastern Guatemala. many children are lucky to have two meals a day, mostly just tortillas and chile. The Guatemalan government is supposed to provide school meals to combat this trend, but in some out-of-the-way districts, the money arrives late, or not at all. A USDA-funded program has stepped in to take up the slack, and proponents say children are staying in school -- and at home -- as a result.