Food banks around the nation offer the BackPack Program (or the Weekend Bag Program at the CAFB), sending children home with a bag or backpack of food for weekend meals.  Currently, there is no Federal funding to offset the cost of providing weekend meals, but the Weekends Without Hunger Act offers much-needed funding to support these programs.

From Feeding America
Weekends Without Hunger

Rep. Dina Titus (NV-3) and Senator Arlen Specter (PA) recently introduced the “Weekends Without Hunger Act” (H.R. 5012/S. 3292). This legislation establishes a 5-year pilot program, beginning in FY 2011, that provides commodities to eligible institutions, such as schools and emergency food providers, to carry out projects that would provide nutritious food to at-risk school children on weekends and during extended school holidays during the school year. Eligible institutions must be located in low-income communities, meaning at least 50% of the children are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals. Each fiscal year a minimum of $10 million in new funding would be provided for the purchase of commodities. An interim and final evaluation would be completed in 2013 and 2015 respectively.  Click here for more information on the Weekend Without Hunger Act.

The risk of hunger during out of school times was recently reported on CNN, featuring our partner organization Frederick Douglass Community Center, which has both a Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag program in operation year-round.

For more information about the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill, including the Weekends Without Hunger Act, visit the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

The children have benefitted recently from different types of lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and herbs. We are excited to provide more locally grown produce to the children as the growing season continues! This produce reaches over 600 children throughout Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the City of Alexandria over the summer months.

The CAFB purchases some shares at reduced cost and receives additional shares through generous donations from other CSA members and Waterpenny Farm. We are grateful for this support in continuing our goal of sending more fresh produce to children and teens.

We sent out 266 bags to 6 sites in Northern Virginia. NOVA Kids Cafe serves approximately 800 children weekly at 23 sites throughout the region. We appreciate this donation which will provide new snack items to the children and are thankful for such generous support from the community.

Throughout the morning we discussed snack and supper options, new reporting forms, upcoming training opportunities and new resources that are available to our site leaders and children. Many great suggestions were shared and we look forward to implementing some new ideas. It is always so energizing to get all of our site leaders in one place to talk, share food, and focus on the children we’re serving. We already look forward to our next round of forums this fall!

We want to send a special thanks to Covenant Baptist Church for allowing us to use their space again this spring.

Because of their determination, all of our Kids Cafe® sites received the food they need to serve their afterschool meals and our Weekend Bag sites were able to replenish their supply of weekend bags to send home on Friday.  Our partner sites truly appreciate the dedication and commitment that our drivers demonstrated last week!

Video footage taken by John Huber, Food For Kids Assistant

 The Event

Children sat coloring the food pyramid as donors, OSSE representatives, long-time volunteers, and advocacy partners from Feeding America and DC Hunger Solutions were welcomed in to the site. 

We had four speakers at our event.  Lynn spoke to the group about the importance of food and our work in the community.  I spoke to the group about the ongoing goals of Kids Cafe.  Steve Park spoke to the group about the children’s programs at Little Lights Urban Ministries and the impact that Kids Cafe will make at their site.  Daniel Nestel discussed the volunteer projects his family leads at Beth El Temple and why he finds this work so important.

After the speakers, Jeff Poch led the children in a nutrition activity talking about the food groups.  Then he and the children made guacamole and the salsa for tacos.  The children enjoyed a dinner of bean and turkey tacos with lots of veggies on whole-wheat tortillas, a side of fruit salad, triscuits, and milk and juice. 

As we close our successful holiday season and begin a new year (and decade!), Kids Cafe® would also like to share some of the exciting developments that are taking place within our program. The District of Columbia now joins ten states (including Maryland) that can receive reimbursements for evening suppers through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program – giving more children access to healthy meals served during high-risk afterschool hours.  This reimbursement will allow us to purchase healthier food for our Kids Cafe program.

Kids Cafe is also pleased to welcome 10 new DC sites to our program:

The Center City Public Charter Schools campuses:

- Brightwood ( Ward 4 )
- Capitol Hill ( Ward 6 )
- Congress Heights ( Ward 8 )
- Petworth ( Ward 4 )
- Shaw  ( Ward 2 )
- Trinidad ( Ward 5 )

Little Lights Urban Ministries – serving two locations ( Ward 6 )

Cornerstone School of DC ( Ward 7 )

Second Genesis’ Teen Outreach Program ( Ward 7 )

With the opening of these sites, we will be serving 515 new children – an increase of over 30 percent – in two Wards that were not recently represented ( Wards 2 and 6 ).

We are off to a great start…  Now let’s make it a great year!