COLUMBUS, Ohio – Summer vacation can mean long, carefree days, but a break from school can also deprive hungry children of access to free or inexpensive food and the kind of “brain food” that keeps them from losing ground before classes resume in the fall.
An estimated 750,000 children across Ohio are eligible for free or low-cost breakfast and lunch through their schools, but a fraction of them take advantage of feeding programs during the summer, said Andy Ginther, vice president for Community Affairs and Outreach for the Children’s Hunger Alliance.
“About 80 percent of kids that are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch take advantage of it during the school year but, in the summertime, only about 13 percent of those kids take advantage of the meals,” he said.
The Hunger Alliance is part of a five-year initiative, known as “Make Summer Count,” where hunger-fighting groups combine resources with organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs and neighborhood settlement houses, where kids are already encouraged to gather, to provide both meals and “enrichment opportunities,” Ginther said.
The program is intended to provide food and learning and physical activity to hold onto the one grading period’s worth of education experts believe the kids lose when they are out of school for several weeks during the summer, Ginther said.
“For kids that don’t have access to nutritious meals in the summertime and don’t keep their brain working and thinking critically and critically, that’s a huge compounding effect over 13 years,” he said.
Ginther says the groups taking part in “Make Summer Count” hope to increase the number of eligible children receiving free or low-cost meals during the summer from 13,000 last year to 26,000 by 2017.
The summer feeding program in Columbus begins Thursday, June 20, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Fedderson Community Center, 3911 Dresden Street.
Governor John Kasich signed an executive order providing up to $1.5 million to help with summer food for children in need.
Nora Balduff with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks says there is a need for more communities to get involved and organizations to step up and become program sites.
“A kid needs to be able to have nutrition to learn and grow. We’re talking about a developing body, a developing mind and lack of adequate nutrition at this time in their lives can affect them for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Those interested in finding a site in their community or setting one up can go to the Ohio Department of Education website or call 855-570-7377.