Free summer meals soar in NJ during COVID will it continue?
In a summer featuring a global pandemic, more than 9 million free meals were handed out by schools and community organizations to Garden State children who may have otherwise struggled to get their hands on nutritious food during July 2020 alone.
According to a report released Thursday by Hunger Free New Jersey, the number of meals distributed in summer 2020 nearly tripled 2019 s numbers, and the number of children reached increased twofold, through the use of federal child nutrition programs.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a large reason for the uptick, according to Adele LaTourette, director of the Englewood-based nonprofit with a heightened awareness of the need to feed kids, many communities that had not done so in the past decided to participate in federal summer meal programs in 2020. At the same time, the U.S. government waived key rules such as requiring congregate settings which made it easier for schools, o
Credit: USDAgov via Creative Commons CC-PDM-1.0
In order to reach more hungry families, some summer-meal programs are allowing parents to pick up food rather than requiring kids to eat it on site.
New Jersey schools and community organizations fed twice the number of children last summer than the year before, providing meals to many who may have gone hungry otherwise due to the pandemic’s effect on families and on typical summer children’s programs.
Recognizing those great needs, more communities participated in federal summer-meal programs than before. The waiver of some rules due to the pandemic and a new state law requiring some public school districts to participate in the summer-meals program also helped boost the number of children served on an average day last July to almost 204,000. That represents 51% of the children who receive free or reduced-price school lunches, compared with just 26% who got meals in July 2019, according to a new report from Hunger Free New Jerse
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January 1, 2021|
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