Latest Des Moines College News

Lovejoy Elementary School kindergarten teacher Deana Tusing, 45, keeps extra snacks such as animal crackers in her classroom for kids who come to school hungry.She does so because she knows how it feels. Tusing was raised by a single mother who was an alcoholic and had difficulty caring for three children. Hospitalized at the age of 5 for malnutrition, pneumonia and tonsillitis, Tusing nearly died."When I was in kindergarten, I was very, very sick because my mother was not able to take care of me," she said. "Many times we didn't have food at home and I would come to school hungry."Hunger was only part of Tusing's lifetime of struggle — experiences she is now using to help underprivileged children who have backgrounds similar to her own.Tusing had a chaotic and lonely childhood. She moved frequently between Des Moines and Bondurant, and was shuffled between the homes of her family members. At times, she lived in a drafty trailer on East 14th Street. Her mother died when she was 10 and she was raised by her oldest sister. She didn't meet her father until she was 29. He, too, was an alcoholic. He later died of cirrhosis of the liver.Those - more available