School will soon break for summer reccess. 

For some children this means vacations, time by the pool and fun with friends.  But for many kids in the Washington metro area, summer is a time when they do not have access to school meals.  In the food bank’s service area, 65 percent of children participate in federal school lunch and breakfast programs; and consume a majority of their calories at school.

Many families are struggling everyday just to get enough food to eat, and with children home for the summer, it becomes even more challenging.  The food bank invests in the lives of children at risk of hunger by providing continuous access to food when school meals are not available.  Our Kids Cafe program nourishes nearly 2000 children through after-school and summer enrichment programs; and our Weekend Bag program serves nearly 1700 children with take-home bags of nutritious food created to reduce hunger over weekends.

As you enjoy the summer and all the splendor that is brings, please remember those children who do not have access to three quality meals daily. 

Hunger never takes a vacation.

Because so many children in the Washington Metro area rely on the meals distributed at school as a critical part of their health and nutrition, they are often left at risk of hunger over the weekend.  The Weekend Bag Program is intended to fill this gap.  We work with 35 partner sites across the region to provide over 1,710 school-aged children with a bag of groceries to take home for themselves and their families over the weekend. 

Each bag contains 5-7 pounds of shelf-stable food and always consists of at least two kid-friendly snacks and two breakfast items, as well as a meal to supplement the family, which is comprised of a protein, grain, vegetable, and fruit.  A sample menu might include two packs of oatmeal, fruit cocktail, spaghetti noodles, meatballs in tomato sauce, tomatoes, green beans, cereal bar and an applesauce cup.

We sometimes hear that parents are not sure what to do with all the bag’s contents, especially the canned fruits and vegetables.  To help parents with recipe ideas we will be working with our Nutrition Education Department to provide a monthly recipe card in each bag.  The first recipe card was for “chicken pot pie” and our most recent card included “5 ways to use canned corn!” We are hoping that these recipe cards will increase the possibilities of each bag’s contents.

Kids Cafe is distributing over 1,500 fruit bags this December.  Each bag contains apples, oranges, pears and clementines; and makes certain that participants have at least one piece of healthy, fresh produce for each day they are away from school.

The Weekend Bag program increased the contents in each bag this month, adding a few extra items to increase the amount of meals offered in each bag.  Some sites that are closing for the holidays are distributing ‘double bags’ to participants, making sure that kids do not miss a bag because their distribution site is closed.

Thank you to the numerous groups like the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill and individual volunteers that helped us to pack our holiday extras!  Together we have helped make this holiday season brighter for many youth in our community.

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).

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