Youth

What an incredible day! UPS, located in Stratford, delivered close to six-hundred children’s books to Optimus Health Care as a result of the Dr. Jim Crispino Book Challenge. This year, UPS staff started their spring cleaning quite early as they United Way operates successful programs like Born Learning to encourage parents and educators to participate fully and in positive ways during a child's earliest learning stages.

One of the greatest obstacles in eating healthy food can be a lack of accessibility. Families may choose to buy less healthy food because it is more available or less expensive than junk foods. Communities that recognize this imbalance can initiate campaigns like food drives to donate healthy foods to low-income households. In this United Way Charting a Course for Change report, tax incentives have been identified as an option for helping lower-cost groceries to appear in communities. Naturally, this would make healthy produce more widely accessible for everyone.

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Tammy Tickfer, principal at Lafayette Park Elementary School, said she and her teachers see a noticeable difference when children have been to some form of early childhood education, and especially one focused on preparing students for school.

Based on numbers collected by the United Way of Howard County, only 45 percent of students in the county are entering kindergarten ready to learn - defined as being prepared socially, emotionally and academically for a kindergarten curriculum.