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