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The summer months are upon us and school doors will be closing for many children who depend on the free breakfast and lunch meals at their local schools.
This is a crucial time for many children locally who will experience hunger daily. For many of these children the two meals that are provided daily during the normal school year are all they may have to eat.
The HELPINGS: Food Stamp Outreach Program—working along with the McLennan County Hunger Coalition (MCHC), Waco Independent School District’s Child Nutrition Services,
the Texas Hunger Initiative (a program of the Baylor University School of Social Work and the Baptist General Convention of Texas), the Waco Restaurant Association, and the Waco Chamber of Commerce—will kick off the promotion of this year’s 2010 Summer Feeding Program.
Organizers will place posters at locations where families gather or shop. They will distribute fliers to all children prior to the public school summer dismissal. These fliers will provide each parent with information about where to seek the closest summer feeding site for their children at no cost.
Normally, 2 million meals are served during the typical Waco ISD school year, with many children relying solely on free breakfast and lunch for their meals. During the summer break, the number of meals served drops dramatically to 100,000 for those attending the summer-school session
in June.
Once July and August arrives, this number will drop to only 34,000 meals, leaving many children going hungry in the summertime. Organizers of the Summer Feeding Program are seeking to change this.
Any child up to 18 years of age can eat meals at any of the summer feeding sites at no cost. Children participating in the Summer Feeding Program do not have to be United States
citizens or residents of McLennan County.
This program is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is a nationwide endeavor to ensure that no child in our community should go without food, or have to feel the pains of hunger.
Your support is needed to help ensure that each child has been given this opportunity to receive summer meals. Please visit the new McLennan County Hunger Coalition web site for information about financial contributions, volunteer opportunities, becoming a summer feeding site, or joining the McLennan County Hunger Coalition.
Please contact Esther Morales, Program Director for HELPINGS: SNAP (Food Stamp) Outreach Program at 254-753-3545, email her at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or visit the new website at: www.mclennanhunger.org.
All of the folks at the MCHC hope you have a great summer and please remember that hunger doesn't take a summer break.
—Esther Morales is the Program Director for HELPINGS, and Neil Lumbard is the VISTA volunteer for the McLennan County Hunger Coalition.
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