TCSS Receives Summer Meal Grant to Provide Meals to Children in Georgia and Alabama
Released on Friday, June 28, 2024 at 10:00 AM
For kids who receive school meals, summer is the hungriest time of the year. This year, that could change thanks to new, expanded guidelines that give school districts and local organizations flexibility to offer non-congregate meal services in more rural communities. To help expand this effort, No Kid Hungry Georgia recently announced more than $158,000 in grant funding to 10 organizations across the state to help them provide summer meals to even more kids.
For many children, free or reduced-price school meals are a lifeline that ensures nutrition during the school term, but when school closes for the summer, those meals disappear, putting a strain on already-tight budgets for families, especially those in rural areas.
A recent No Kid Hungry survey of rural families reported unique challenges parents faced during summer vacation. More than half of rural families said they didn’t have enough money for food during summer vacation. Over 80% said they spent more on groceries when their children were on summer vacation, spending an average of $168 more each month.
Summer school feeding programs, which aim to provide healthy meals during the summer holidays, have historically only been able to reach a fraction of children in need due to barriers such as transportation and fuel costs, extreme weather, and parents’ work schedules. These challenges are particularly acute in rural areas, where children often live miles from the nearest school meal site.
“For too long there has been a large gap between the number of children receiving summer meals and the number of children who truly need them, especially in rural areas. With the new flexibility around local summer meals, that will no longer be the case,” said Eleni Towns, director of the No Kid Hungry State campaign. “We’re pleased to help these schools and community groups provide summer meals in a way that works for their community, whether that’s allowing families to pick up multiple meals at once or delivering meals to a convenient location in their community.”
No Kid Hungry grants will help with the coordination needed to provide summer meals to as many children as possible, including meal delivery, refrigeration and transportation costs. In Georgia, the following school districts and community organizations received grant funding:
Baldwin School District Bartow County Schools Nutrition Bullock County Schools Colquitt County Board of Education Echols County Schools Sumter County Schools Tift County Schools Troup County Schools Turner County School District YMCA of Rome and Floyd County
No Kid Hungry is helping families find summer meals near them through a free meal search map and text hotline: Parents and guardians can text the word “FOOD” (or “COMIDA”) to 304-304 to find nearby establishments.
If you would like to order meals for your children, please call the TCSS Nutrition Department in advance at 706-883-1588. Pickup in West Point is on Wednesdays, so please call by the Friday before.
TCSS provides the meals, but the summer meals are open to any child up to age 18. Children do not have to attend Troup County schools or be Georgia residents.
The program comes after Troupe Schools announced in May that all school meals would be free from August.
