Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 108

Rick Reinhard Dr. Robert Moses, a civil rights pioneer and education reformer, founded the Algebra Project in the early 1980s to improve the math literacy of children in disadvantaged schools. 98? Chapter 3 n Moses gained national recognition for the Algebra Project when he received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” which enabled him to expand the project to other parts of the country. In 1994, he brought the Algebra Project to Jackson, where Albert Sykes, then 11 years old, was among the first group of students. At Brinkley Middle School, where Albert was a student, 96 percent of the children qualify for free and reduced price lunch.32 Only 10 percent of the students in a recent study who were eligible for the National School Lunch Program showed proficiency in math.33 The Algebra Project initially got Albert’s attention—and that of most of the other participants—because food was offered at every session. “When we started showing up after school, it was mostly because we knew there wasn’t going to be dinner at home that night,” he says. “Sure there was hunger for knowledge, but there was also real physical hunger.”34 YPP was founded in 1996, and Albert was involved in it from the beginning. At just 14, he helped write the organization’s first grant proposal, which won YPP a $150,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation. YPP has grown from one school in Jackson to 16 cities around the country. Every year, the program reaches 5,000 students from disenfranchised commun