The Metro: Campaign aims to fight child hunger during summer break
No Kid Hungry’s goal is to reduce food insecurity by supporting school districts and spreading awareness nationwide.
During the K-12 academic year, many children are regularly fed by their school. For most families, it’s one less meal to worry about during the week. But what happens when students go on summer break?
There are several organizations and food programs that help feed kids and their families throughout the summer.
No Kid Hungry is a national campaign run by the nonprofit Share Our Strength, which tries to resolve hunger and poverty in America. No Kid Hungry feeds families on the national, state and local levels.
To discuss the severity of food insecure children, what they experience in the summer, and what No Kid Hungry does to help them, Eleni Towns, the director of No Kid Hungry State Campaigns, joined The Metro on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, it is as you mentioned, schools are an amazing system to help fight off food insecurity among kids. A nationwide 30 million kids rely on school meal programs for a free or reduced price breakfast, lunch, and even after school meal or snack,” Towns stated. “In Michigan, that’s more than 900 students that rely on this meal assistance.”
Once summer break begins, food insecurity increases because many children do not have access to the healthy and nutritional foods that schools provide.
“Lots of research has tested that shows that actually kids who consume school meals are getting better nutrition, fruits and vegetables, milk, less sugar, than those that are purchasing meals or bringing their own meals to school. So these are healthy meals,” Towns explained. “The question in the summer is how do we make sure families and kids have access to them?”
No Kid Hungry’s goal is to reduce food insecurity by supporting school districts and spreading awareness nationwide. The campaign backs two major national food initiatives this summer: the Summer Meals Program, also known as Meet Up Eat Up, and Summer EBT Program.
The Summer Meals Program provides food insecure children 18 years or younger with free meals at schools, community organizations, parks and anywhere kids tend to gather at. Towns explained that the problem with this program is that families need access to a meal pick-up location.
The new and permanent Summer EBT initiative tries to eliminate this transportation barrier by providing financial support that families can use on groceries during the summer.
“The idea is that for kids that qualify for meal assistance during the school year, they’ll receive a grocery benefit card — $120 [per eligible child] for the summer months — that their families can use at any grocery store where they where they purchase meals or purchase groceries to help address some of the gaps during the summer months,” Towns said.
Families can find their nearest meal pick-up location for the Summer Meals Program by visiting michigan.gov/meetupeatup. People can also learn more about the Summer EBT and if they qualify by visiting michigan.gov/mdhhs/assistance-programs/food/summer-ebt.
More headlines from The Metro for July 11, 2024:
- Wayne State University is hosting the J Dilla Music Tech Teaching Workshop for its third consecutive summer. The workshop is a multi-day experience helping Michigan’s K-12 music teachers learn new ways to teach music in the classroom, inspired by the late Detroit producer and songwriter, J Dilla. Jaclyn Rudderow and Michael Shellabarger joined The Metro to discuss the workshop.
- Both private and public actors are working to transition our energy source to clean energy. Under Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the state of Michigan announced that it wants 100% of its electricity to be clean by 2040. Sheri McWhirter, a climate and energy reporter for MLive who’s been writing about the possibility of transferring clean energy under the Great Lakes, joined The Metro.
- Detroit’s Apple Developer Academy is an intensive 10-month course teaching coding, design, marketing, and project management. Darnell Adams is Vice President of Detroit Community Initiatives for the Gilbert Family Foundation, and Maya Caldwell is a 2024 graduate of the Detroit Apple Developer Program. They joined the Metro to discuss the program.
- The streets of Berkley will be filled with vibrant colors this weekend when an array of artists showcase their talents by creating artwork with chalk. The Berkley Street Art Fest. To discuss the fair, the events director for the Berkley Area Chamber of Commerce Darlene Rothman joined The Metro.
