When school’s out many children go hungry
The warm weather and free-wheeling days that come with summer
vacation for some children often bring with them hunger pains for
the poorest among them
– especially those who rely on the National School Lunch program
to keep their bellies full.
When school’s out many children go hungry
The warm weather and free-wheeling days that come with summer vacation for some children often bring with them hunger pains for the poorest among them – especially those who rely on the National School Lunch program to keep their bellies full.
As National Hunger Awareness Day approaches local hunger advocates and food pantries have many ways for local to donate at a time when food is most needed.
“It’s a time that families with kids do struggle because the kids aren’t getting meals in schools,” said Lee Mercer, Education and Outreach Director for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. “It’s a time when food banks struggle.”
When many of the children who qualify for school lunch or breakfast programs are out of school during the summer, local food banks, such as Community Pantry in San Benito and St. Joseph’s Family Center in Gilroy, see a dip in donations.
“Part of the struggle is that people gave in November or December so they think, ‘I am done for the year,'” Mercer said. “When we get to summer, we need more food and more dollars to feed kids.”
Community Pantry served more than 2,000 people in 2004 and nearly half of those served were children. The nonprofit food bank gives out an average of 823 bags of food each week throughout San Benito County and serve about 6 percent of Hollister’s population.
While the federal government does have a program that is meant to serve low-income children when school is not in session, the Summer Food Service program is largely underutilized in Santa Clara and San Benito counties.
In San Benito County, more than 5,000 children were eligible for free or reduced-cost meals in the summer, but only 23 percent of those children received meals, according to the California Department of Education 2002 figures.
In Santa Clara County, just 28 percent of those children eligible received meals during the summer.
The Gilroy Unified School District and the Aromas-San Juan School District are two of the few local school districts that run a seamless summer program, which means local children can continue to come to school campuses for lunch regardless of whether they are in summer school.
The seamless summer option started as a pilot program in the Alisal School District in Monterey County, Mercer said, and became a streamlined way for school districts to offer summer lunches to needy children. The program was eventually adopted by Congress and is available to all school districts nationally.
The Aromas-San Juan school district serves lunches at Anzar High School and San Juan School through the program, while seven Gilroy schools offer lunch.
School districts aren’t the only eligible entities for the program – local government agencies and nonprofit organizations can also become sponsors of summer lunch programs, though few have taken on the challenge.
“Because of the severe consequences of childhood hunger, we can and should be doing more to ensure that kids are fed when school is out,” said Kenneth Hecht, the executive director of the California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit advocacy group that works to ensure proper nutrition for low-income families statewide. “Congress can make summer lunches available to all kids in our community by cutting red tape to allow community organizations to provide meals and snacks year-round.”
The lack of school lunch programs in the area hinges on complicated paperwork. Currently, the accounting requirements and paperwork needed for full reimbursement to nonprofit agencies through the summer food service program is so complex few organizations apply to run the programs.
One Santa Cruz nonprofit, Community Bridges, runs a summer program but loses money on it every year.
“It costs them,” Mercer said.
Some states have tried a pilot program, called the Simplified Summer Food Program, which makes it easier for nonprofits to run summer lunch programs. The program has been tried in other states and has increased the number of eligible children who received summer lunches.
“In every state where they tried this new way of doing the paperwork, they increased participation,” Mercer said.
The simplified version of the summer food service program is not available in California, but an act of Congress could change that.
In the meantime, local children will be able to rely on pantries such as Community Pantry and St. Joseph’s Family Center – both of which rely on donations from the community and Second Harvest.
“It’s critically important and one thing is summer comes and people are on vacation. Their mind isn’t on donating food,” Mercer said. “If they stop and think that for a lot of kids its not summer vacation – its not having school lunch – they would take the time to donate.”
How to help
Provide food to a hungry family this week in celebration of National Hunger Awareness Day.
San Benito County:
· Fill the truck – Tuesday, June 6th
Community Pantry will be visiting locally businesses for donations of canned and dry goods. For more information, call 831-637-0340
· Dining Out, Helping Out – Thursday, June 8th
Local restaurants will donate 10 percent of their gross sales to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties For more information or a full list of participating restaurants, call 831-722-7110 or visit www.thefoodbank.org.
Partial list:
Casa De Fruta Restaurant – Hollister
San Juan Oaks Golf Club – Hollister
Dona Esther Mexican Food – San Juan Bautista
Jardines de San Juan – San Juan Bautista
Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor – San Juan Bautista
Santa Clara County:
· Skip lunch – Thursday, June 8th
Skip lunch and donate the money that would have been spent to Second Harvest Food Bank of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. $10 will provide 20 nutritious meals to people in need. For more information, call 408-694-0025 or visit www.iskippedlunch.com.
