Hunger takes no summer break: When school's out, the challenge is how to feed more kids

Funded by a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, several nonprofits are working to fill the summer food security gap for children who rely on school meals. Several groups, including Pine River Shares and Friends with Food, have partnered with the Education Literacy Health and Inspiration Community Center to provide free lunches to needy schoolchildren. When the school district ceased operating the meal program, ELHI took over the operations, serving the children of families who already come to the center for other activities.

Communities are creating networks to fill in food security gaps for children. In cities like Jackson, Mississippi, and Atlanta, Georgia, community groups, churches, and nonprofits are working to provide summer meals to children who rely on lunch programs during the school year. Closed schools create a barrier to resources for many families that depend on them. Organizations like Feeding America and the Georgia Nutritional Services draw from USDA Summer Food Service Program funding to address the shortfall in summertime support.

Individuals, churches, and nonprofits are joining together in North Carolina's food deserts to help address childhood hunger throughout the state. In one particularly food-insecure county, an alliance between three community churches as well as pop-up markets has helped to more equitably distribute produce to neighborhoods and communities where resources are scarce.

Common Pantry provides assistance to those facing food insecurity, and recently opened a new facility to offer housing information and assistance with job searches, government benefits, health care and other services. The Pantry also started a nutrition program, teaching people about the science between food and health, as well as how to cook healthy meals at home.

A community kitchen in Alexandra, South Africa, uses donations from local businesses, individuals, and a food bank to make meals for children who are not getting enough nutrition from government assistance. Local women volunteer to cook the meals and are able to eat and take home leftovers after all the children are fed.

Produce prescription programs like FreshRx Oklahoma and Recipe4Health are taking off as ways to combat heart problems and other diseases like diabetes. These programs provide free fruits and veggies to participants, helping increase access to healthy foods and address food insecurity. Research over the course of a year shows Recipe4Health participants significantly lowered their cholesterol and food security rates among participants dropped from 59% to 48%.

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Program rewards healthy shopping choices with a dollar-for-dollar instant rebate at participating grocery stores. 74,000 people in 44 of California’s 58 counties benefit from the program.

Double Up Food Bucks offers dollar-for-dollar matching of up to $10 daily for fresh fruits and vegetables for those enrolled in SNAP. The program addresses affordability issues that historically prevented people from accessing fresh, nutritious foods. Double Up Food Bucks works with more than 250 grocery stores throughout the state to provide widespread access to fresh produce.

The Grocery Spot is a free grocery store where residents can access redistributed food from local pantries and for-profit grocery stores that have more than they can sell. The Grocery Spot addresses food waste and access, providing more than 140,000 pounds of free food to more than 600 families each week.

The Transitional Learning Center provides children ages four to 14 with free education, school supplies, and one meal per day to not only encourage school attendance but to also address the issue of malnutrition. The beauty of the Center is that it’s a semi-permanent structure that can be moved to different locations where there may be school children in need. Since the Center was formed, over nine million students from 54,619 schools have benefited from the program.