Eye on Equity
JUST ONE MORE Heeding the Challenge to Feed Kids During the Summer Months BY MEG KRUGEL / Editor, Today's OEA
W
hen the Oregon Department of Education issued the “Just One More” challenge earlier this year, Kyle Micken took the charge seriously. ODE’s hope, he explained, was to have each district focus on broadening the availability of summer food programs by adding one more day, or one more site, or one more meal to its current offerings. Micken, who is the Nutrition Services Director for Roseburg Public Schools and a dad to young kids, began brainstorming ways to meet the challenge head-on and ensure that Douglas County youth had more access to summer food than ever before. This summer, two Lunchbox Expresses — retrofitted special-needs school busses — will pop into parking lots around the Roseburg area each day to serve healthy and hot meals to kids in town and the neighboring community of Winston-Dillard. From fresh sliced melon and strawberries to burritos and panini sandwiches — area youth will be able to fill their bellies with nutritious food, no matter where they live in the community. In its first year in operation last year, the original Lunchbox Express (coupled with a handful of stationary sites around the district) managed to feed 250 kids every day. Micken is in the final stages of wrapping up the retrofitting project for the second bus - no small (or inexpensive) task — all told, the job runs about $7,000 and requires Micken to get creative on how to stretch his dollars in the most effective way. He’s hopeful that the addition of one more bus gets more meals to more kids, keeping them healthy and enriched through the summer. A mobile feeding program like the Lunchbox Express is helping solve the dilemma of feeding kids in harder-to-reach pockets in Douglas County. Nationwide, the vast majority (80 percent) of children 16
TODAY’S OEA | SUMMER 2016
What Can Teachers and Educators Do?
n Talk to kids about their summer plans. Ask if they participate in a local summer meals program, if there are fun activities, what their favorite summer lunches are. n Find out where programs are located in your community, and let students and families know about them. www. summerfoodOregon.org. For info about outreach materials, visit: oregonhunger.org/summer-outreachmaterials. n Get involved! Summer meal programs are best when the community is involved. To find out more, contact your local program using www. summerfoodOregon.org or contact Marcella Miller at Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon at Marcella@ oregonhunger.org. n For information about starting a summer meal program, contact Cathy Brock at Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs at cathy.brock@state.or.us and visit: www.ode.state.or.us/search/ results/?id=208.
from low-income backgrounds spend their summer days at home, not in organized programs that offer meals. Many of these
meal sites operate miles away from where children live. Caregivers are often at work, and with school buses out of service in the summer, it can be difficult for many kids to find transportation to summer meal sites. (This adds a substantial financial burden on their families, who can see their grocery bills grow $300 each month during the summer in order to replace the meals children were receiving at school). Statewide, one in four Oregon children face food insecurity or hunger, and summer can be the hungriest time of year for many of these children from low-income families. The hunger experienced during these months can have far-reaching consequences that last well beyond the end of the season, affecting a child’s academic achievement, brain development and overall health. In its efforts to curb hunger during the summer months, Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon awards grants through its Summer Meals Support Fund – this year, 16 communities will receive a financial boost to help lift new, innovative programs off the ground. Since 2009, Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon has distributed over $610,000 in small grants to schools and other organizations in nearly every county in the state. In particular, explains Marcella Miller, Partner for a Hunger Free Oregon’s Child Hunger Prevention Manager, they focus their efforts on: n Rural, hard-to-reach areas with lower concentrations of kids n Mobile routes, or programs that use innovated transportation solutions to reach more kids n Programs that focus on teens n Partnerships with affordable housing communities and libraries Given how uniquely the district meets these criteria, Roseburg School District has been selected to receive one of the Summer Meals Support Fund grants this