Photo from flickr/HeyThereSpaceman. Creative Commons
What happens during the summer to all those students who rely on free or reduced school lunches? Many of them go hungry, according to a recent story from AOL News. It has always been a problem, but this year it looks to be especially bad.
“With the school year ending in communities across America, more than 16 million children face a summer of hunger.
“While classes were in session, they relied on free or discount cafeteria meals subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But they will not be reached by the patchwork summer food programs financed by the USDA, which feed fewer than one in five of the total number of kids poor enough to qualify.”
The story goes on to chart summer meal participation rates by state and put forward new ideas for bridging the food security gap during the summer months.
Let’s hear some of your ideas for alleviating summer hunger for children in need.
We're a family of six relying on low cost school lunches in the winter because of a tight budget. In the summer, we rely on a freezer stuffed full of deer meat hunted in the fall and we raise veggies in hydroculture pots around the house for year-round nutrition. Both are very low cost, especially compared to purchased foods.
For city kids, a community food pantry with a hydrogarden and freezers for hunters to provide meat could help. Also, community chicken farms don't have to be big to provide lots of nutritious eggs. A community hydrogarden could be in a rooftop greenhouse or could provide inexpensive materials to individuals to grow their own plants indoors.
Great ideas. I especially like the city chickens and rooftop gardens. And I'm intrigued by the idea of having hunters provide food to fill city freezers. How exactly would this work? How to keep it from becoming an upscale, specialty-food market?