>>SOUTHERN INDIANA —
For many children, summer activities will include a feast at the family reunion, a drive-thru treat after the ballgame, and even fried fish caught at the lake.
For too many Indiana children, however, summer will be spent searching for the next meal. A growing number of Hoosier kids are poor and hungry. As summer approaches, public programs and private charity have more opportunities to feed famished children.
Forty-two percent of Indiana school students are enrolled in the free or reduced price meal programs at school – a percentage that has increased by half in the last decade. When school ends in late May or early June, where will these children eat?
The answer to that question has life-long consequences. Research summarized by Tufts University reveals that undernourished children are more likely to get sick, struggle in school and exhibit behavioral problems. Just think: how do you feel/perform at work or interact with others when you are hungry?
The federal Simplified Summer Food Program tries to fill part of the food gap for hungry kids. The program reimburses schools, parks, youth organizations, youth ministries and other grassroots agencies that feed poor children during the summer.
This safety net service is administered by the Indiana Department of Education (http://www.doe.in.gov/food/summer/welcome.html). Last summer, 2.6 million meals were served to 55,000 Hoosier kids, resulting in $6.1 million in food aid for Indiana children.
The federal program fed hundreds of kids last summer in the Wellspring Summer Day Camp in Ft. Wayne.
“The kids are getting a nutritionally balanced meal,” said camp director Frank Zirille. “They probably are introduced to things they might not normally eat, like vegetables and yogurt.”
Research from the National Summer Learning Association finds that two-thirds of the nation’s academic achievement gap develops in the summer when low-income children are out of school and unlikely to be involved in organized youth programs. Summer food assistance can attract kids into those formal youth programs, which not only feed their bodies but also engage their minds.
Zirille promotes the free lunch in his marketing materials to low-income families. He is convinced the meals are a key reason — along with the camp’s structured activities and adult supervision — why parents enroll their children in the day camp.
Yet, the federal summer food program is underused across the state. According to surveys, 80 percent of the students who are enrolled in the school meal programs do not utilize the federal summer food assistance. Of those families, nearly half say they did not know about the program.
Therefore, before summer break arrives, educators have an opportunity to inform students and their parents about local providers of the summer food program. Delivering this information becomes much more difficult when the students scatter for the summer.
In addition, religious congregations, service clubs and other community organizations also can publicize local summer food locations — and if possible provide transportation — as part of their dedicated efforts to serve low-income neighbors.
While the summer food program can stretch a poor family’s grocery budget — which often relies on food stamps that do not keep up with rising food prices — Indiana’s growing poverty rate means too many kids will still suffer food insecurity.
This is where private charity can make a difference. As you enjoy the bounty of summer — barbeques, soft fruit and, yes, fresh fish from the lake — consider buying a bag of groceries each week for a family in need. Food banks and food pantries are located in local communities across Indiana. Food charities are busy during the holiday season, but they often run low during the summer months — even though demand increases as students leave the school-based meal programs.
DOE, meanwhile, is recruiting more providers for the federal food program which last summer existed in just 68 of Indiana’s 92 counties.
“Programs like this run effectively because of the ways communities work together,” said Lauren Auld of the Indiana Department of Education. “We appreciate the collaboration that we get from communities to make these programs work – schools, churches, YMCA’s, Salvation Armies, summer camps, nonprofits and food banks.
“It is our hope that other organizations similar to these in counties where there isn’t a site will step up to the plate.”
Bill Stanczykiewicz is president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, iyi@iyi.org.
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STANCZYKIEWICZ: Filling youth’s summer hunger
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