Hunger Doesn’t Take a Summer Vacation

For children in families that are on the edge, when school ends hunger begins.

If you’ve read the news stories and editorials, or you’ve seen the All Faiths Food Bank video campaign (and I sure hope you have), then you’ve heard the message about summer hunger. In our community, as many as 40,000 children will go hungry once school lets out for the year. That figure includes the estimated number of schoolchildren who face daily hunger, plus their younger siblings and others who aren’t included in official counts.

Another way to look at it: Every time you see a pair of friends chatting at a bus stop or scrambling about a playground, come early June, one of them won’t always know where their next meal will come from.

That’s because these youngsters will no longer receive the balanced breakfasts and lunches they can get at school each day. Nor will they bring home backpacks, efficiently filled with a weekend’s worth of nutrition, which is something they are routinely offered each Friday during school. 

But the hopeful turn in this sad tale is our community’s response through the Campaign Against Summer Hunger. For the past three years, All Faiths Food Bank and a growing group of partners have fed more and more local children through the lean summer months. This 40-day campaign raises funds and food from the community, which are then used to fuel an expanding array of summer-feeding programs that deliver nutrition when and where it’s needed most.

For more, please visit SRQ Magazine to read Mark Pritchett's April 15 guest column in SRQ Daily.