Summer meals program meeting a need

Published 10:54 am Wednesday, June 27, 2018

This summer thousands of free meals will be delivered to area young people who are getting served through a federal program run through the local public school district.

The Seamless Summer Option, as formally titled by the United States Department of Agriculture, runs Mondays through Fridays through July 20, providing breakfast and lunch free of charge to children from birth to 18 years old. 

When school lets out for the summer, this program ensures that just because classes are over doesn’t mean that local young people go lacking at breakfast and lunchtime. 

It’s estimated that more than 40,000 meals will be served this summer, ensuring that local young people get at least two healthy, balanced meals a day. 

The youths not only get at least one good meal a day, the service gets them out of the house and they interact as they play while the meals are being prepared and then get to eat together.

Parents benefit too, especially those who often have to choose whether to buy food or pay the power bill.

School lunch and breakfast programs were born of the realization that proper nutrition is not only important for children’s health but also vital to their ability to learn. It’s hard to sit in class and learn when all you can think about is how hungry you are, and depriving youths of proper nutrition in the summer sets them up for academic failure once school starts.

Although children living in poverty are part of the focus, local young people are fed regardless of their family income. 

Children can obtain meals through a number of ways. They can either come to the meals or the meals can come to them. Two bus routes will run throughout the community stopping in areas highly concentrated with children like apartment complexes and neighborhoods.

For more information regarding the summer meal program call 478-457-3315 or email susan.nelson@baldwin.k12.ga.us. Flyers about the Seamless Summer Option are also posted on the school district’s website, www.baldwincountyschoolsga.org.