June 10, 2016
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA
Vol. 34, No. 39
Summer is no picnic for many Lowcountry kids End of the school year signals riskiest time for hungry children By Mikie Hayes hayesmi@musc.edu
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he school year is over, and most kids are celebrating the end of science projects, pop quizzes and homework for the next 10 weeks. But for low-income children in the Charleston area who rely on their schools for meals, summer can spell the beginning of hungry bellies and fretting about not having enough to eat. To ensure kids in the area have access to a balanced and nutritious breakfast and lunch every day, MUSC is again partnering with Sodexo, a leader in food service operations, to offer Kids Eat Free at MUSC, a program to help reduce food insecurity for children under 18 during the summer months. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funds the much-needed program and allows children who receive free or reduced-cost meals during the school year to continue receiving food while school is out. While it’s difficult to imagine there are still children who suffer from hunger in a county as affluent as the United States, the truth is there are too many kids across America who go hungry or eat poorly during June, July and August. In South Carolina, 14 percent of the population is food insecure. The USDA summer meal programs, like Kids Eat Free at MUSC, help bridge the gap for more than 18 million children who lose their most reliable source of nutrition once the school year ends. Typically, less than 20 percent of eligible children participate in summer meal programs, due to a combination of circumstances that include access to safe sites where meals are available, lack of transportation, no parental supervision, even bad weather. MUSC is hoping to ease some of those challenges for families. Being geographically situated in close proximity to both Memminger Elementary and James Simons Elementary Schools,
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Above photo: During the Summer of 2015, 2,385 nutritional meals were served at MUSC’s cafeterias. Lowcountry children had plenty of healthy options to choose from at MUSC’s Kids Eat Free locations. Below, Sodexo employees put their hearts into serving balanced meals to kids.
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in addition to the number of children on campus every day in the ambulatory and pediatric clinics or with family members, made offering the free meal program at MUSC a smart move, said Debbie Petitpain, a Sodexo wellness dietitian at MUSC. “We are here every day. We serve food every day. We concentrate on health and wellness every day. It just made sense that we would reach out and help children who are vulnerable and need it most.”
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