Childhood Hunger
Latest News
- July 1
Combining food and fun July 1, 2008
Susan Allen
Times ArgusBARRE, Vermont — More than 29,000 Vermont children rely on free or reduced meals at school during the academic year, sometimes the only food they receive in a day, prompting anti-hunger advocates to scramble to ensure kids don’t go hungry when the school year ends.
“Food is the most flexible item in the budget,” said Sarah Kunz, Summer Nutrition Outreach and Policy Specialist with the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. She said costs such as transportation and housing are fixed, making food one area where families can cut back when times are tough.
“That flexible piece of the budget is getting stretched more and more. Families rely on low-cost, high-calorie, low-nutrition cheap foods,” she said. Kids might be eating, but they are consuming low-cost, low-nutrition calories rather than a balanced diet.“The face of hunger is not the extended bellies and wasted limbs that people often think about when they hear the words childhood hunger,” she added. “It’s a different face, something you might not recognize if you passed the child on the street.”
Today at noon, Kunz and Barre summertime lunch providers (folks from all eight city sites that provide summer food programs to children) will hold a free barbeque for kids under 18 at the Barre City Pool. Families are welcome, too, but only the kids eat free.
Kunz said the event is designed to let people know that the pool is the newest site for a summer food program, and to get the word out that many places where kids gather in the summertime – such as the Aldrich Library – will also offer meals and snacks in some cases this summer.
“We hear stories from our partners across the state about what’s happening” when school closes, Kunz said. One Brattleboro teacher said she asked students if they were excited school was finally over, and one responded, ‘Summer is no lunch and nothing to do,’ Kunz said.
During the school year, breakfast and lunch is free to children of families of four earning less than $26,000 annually. Vermont lawmakers this year passed a law ensuring children in families earning between $26,000 and $37,000 pay only 40 cents per meal.
Those children receive breakfasts and lunches that include milk, protein, fruits and vegetables, and a carbohydrate. But come summertime, that quality nutrition – and the programs that might otherwise provide food to hungry children, such as camp — often ends, Kunz said.
“So a lot of kids are home alone, home with older siblings, home in the care of relatives,” Kunz said. “Summertime as a time for kids to be going to camp or involved in sports is not the reality for low-income families.”
The average cost of a day camp in New England is $193 a week per child, and $780 for a week at a residential camp, she said, citing statistics from the American Camping Association
“For families having a hard time already buying fruits and vegetables, $75 a week (for camp) on scholarship is just not on the family budget,” she added.
“When the doors to school close in the spring there is a lack of statewide programming for kids that is age appropriate, cheap or free — it just doesn’t exist for a lot of kids,” Kunz said. “Libraries, Parks and Recreation (departments) and churches are picking up the pieces.”
She said the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger works with communities “to ensure wherever there’s a concentration of low-income kids, there’s access to balanced nutrition. From Richford to Barre to Burlington … it can be done.”
She said Burlington has implemented a program in conjunction with the city’s Intervale farm to allow children to help grow the foods they will eat during the summertime. The Children’s Library at Aldrich in Barre pairs nutritional food with reading and craft activities. And kids at Highgate Housing in Barre enjoy meals along with gardening, free book giveaways and more.
“There are wonderful examples of all different summer programs,” she said.
Adding those activities to a meal program also reduces the stigma children feel about participating in low-income programs.
“Stigma is an issue. It’s an issue with every nutrition assistance program,” Kunz said. “But a lot of kids just view summer food as one more element of a fun day. It’s going to the pool and oh, you get lunch, too.”
She said the number of children participating in summer food programs is expected to increase significantly this summer for two reasons. First, the economy is tight, with the rising price of gasoline and other expenses putting unusual pressure on family budgets. In addition, the number of programs offering summertime meals to low-income children has also increased, expanding access to good food.
Some statistics Kunz cites include:
- Vermont ranks 9th in the nation for participation in summer food programs;
- This year there will be 13 summer food sites throughout Washington County, up from 9 last summer;
- This year, meal sites are located in Barre, Montpelier, Berlin, Northfield and Williamstown.
- And Barre is the only community in Washington County with drop-in summer food sites, allowing kids to stop by for a meal and activities without being enrolled in a particular camp or program.
Starting today, add the Barre City Pool to the list of sites that combine food and fun.
The ultimate goal of summertime meal programs, Kunz said, is to “nourish their bellies and nourish their minds.”
“In my job, there’s nothing more satisfying than going to a food site in July on a hot day and see a child who has been running around and having a great time sit down and have a balanced meal,” she said. “It’s always really rewarding.”
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