Afterschool Meal Programs: Closing the Suppertime Gap in Baltimore
Posted by Anna Mudd on Thursday, November 3, 2011
As a former Baltimorean and a Maryland native, I was thrilled when I found out that this year’s Conference of Leaders would be held in Baltimore. Maryland is a great state to live and work in, but we are most well-known within the anti-hunger community for our close partnership with Governor Martin O’Malley, who teamed up with Share Our Strength to create the Partnership to End Childhood Hunger in Maryland in 2008.
We’re actively working to reduce barriers to several federal food and nutrition programs, and the conference presented a great opportunity to highlight one of the newest, the At-Risk Afterschool Meals Program. While in Baltimore, I visited a supper site at the Carmelo Anthony CARE Center with my colleague Ariane Holm and a photographer from the Baltimore Sun and saw for myself the great work that people in our community are doing to end childhood hunger.
The At-Risk Afterschool Meals Program started in Maryland in 2009 when we became one of the first states to pilot the program. Thus far, a huge driver of Maryland’s success with the At-Risk Afterschool Meals Program is the Family League of Baltimore City’s sponsorship of supper sites across the city through their vended meals model, which takes the burden of compliance and meal preparation off individual sites. When we arrived a few minutes before 3 on Monday afternoon, we saw vendors dropping off coolers filled with enough hot and cold food to feed the 120 children that would soon be joining us. These vendors provide an incredible service to afterschool sites that might not have the kitchen capacity to cook meals on their own.
Soon, children began to arrive by the dozens from two nearby elementary schools. These kids knew the drill, and after quickly dropping off their back packs and jackets in their classrooms, they raced to get in line for the hot meal that was waiting for them. For most of these children, this would be their last meal for the day. And thanks to this program, they were busy chatting with friends, working on homework, and enjoying their dinners, and not having to worry about whether or not they’d have something to eat when they got home.
I arrived back at the hotel just in time to have supper with my colleagues on our final evening in Baltimore. Not unlike the children I had just met a few hours earlier, we sat together around a big table and laughed and joked as we recounted the day’s events. Sitting at that dinner table in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, I couldn’t help but think of the millions of children nationwide who wouldn’t have a decent meal that evening. Then I thought about all of the dedicated and passionate individuals I met at Conference of Leaders who are working to end childhood hunger in this country, and I was more sure than ever that it is something we can achieve here in Maryland and across the U.S.
November 3, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: afterschool programs, baltimore, Governor O'Malley, maryland, no kid hungry
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1 reader comment so far.
Anna, what a wonderful article. You are really doing such a service to our children of Maryland. You can really feel satisfied that you are making a valuable contribution to the world. Thank you!
Posted by Mollie Thorn on November 4, 2011
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