Hungriest time of year hits North Texas Food Bank

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2011/06/07/community/doc4dee4bf7cc6e3805331486.txt

While summer vacation for most children means they can stop worrying about school and homework, for an alarming number of North Texas children, summer is when they start worrying about food.

A study by the Texas Food Policy Roundtable found that only nine Texas children receive summer meals for every 100 who get free or reduced-price lunches during the school year. In North Texas, researchers found that while nearly 70 percent of households served by the North Texas Food Bank have school-age children in the federal school lunch program, only 27 percent of those households enroll their children in summer food programs that provide free meals.

To help address the challenges that low-income families face during the summer in providing healthy meals for their children, the NTFB has implemented a comprehensive approach that increases the number of food service sites providing free, nutritious meals and snacks while school is out.

On June 13, the NTFB will begin 11 weeks of its Summer Food Service Program, which will provide hot, nutritious meals to 2,000 kids a day, five days a week. Starting June 20, 2,500 children a week at the NTFB’s Kids Cafes will receive Food 4 Kids Friday backpacks filled with self-serve, kid-friendly food to last through the weekend. Over the course of two months, 110,000 meals and 110,000 snacks will be served at the SFSP sites, and 100,000 backpacks will be provided through the Food 4 Kids program.