June 4, 2007
KOLNKGIN
Karina Kling

As summer vacation begins for children all across Nebraska, many will face empty cupboards and empty stomachs.

According to the State of States Report: 2007, issued Monday by the Food and Research Action Center, Nebraska ranks 46th for providing access to summer food programs.

A meal is sometimes hard to come by for hundreds of children across Nebraska.

Many rely on school lunches or places like the ’F’ street recreation center where they can get a warm dinner.

But as the school year ends, some children don’t where their next meal will come from.

Here in Lincoln, this summer will mark the 27th year for the summer food program, an opportunity for children to get breakfast and lunch at various sites throughout town.

"We can bring nourishment and meals to children that otherwise wouldn’t be getting that opportunity," says Mike Heyl with the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department.

Lincoln’s summer food program has between 23 and 30 sites each summer and feeds about 1,000 meals a day.

Heyl said they still have to turn children away.

"We could be doing a lot better but we are limited by what we have and where we can go," he said.

Jen Hernandez with Nebraska Appleseed, a non-profit, non-partisan law project, said Nebraska should be at the top of the list for summer food programs, not 46th.

"We produce enough food in this state to feed over seven million people around the world every year, and so for so many of our kids to not have enough access to food is really alarming," Hernandez said.

Hernandez said because so much of the state is rural, many towns don’t have the resources to provide these types of summer food programs.

"If we could have a good outreach campaign to try and really recruit more summer food sites, I think we could get them. Even have mobile summer food sites where we go to the towns," she said.

And Heyl agrees it’s time to take more action to help feed Nebraska’s children.

"We’re doing well. Can we do better, yes," he said.

Twenty-six summer food program sites here in Lincoln will be open starting Monday.

Both breakfast and lunch are provided for children served by the free and reduced school breakfast and lunch programs during the school year.

For more information on a site location near you call:
(402) 441-8045
(402) 441-6726
(402) 441-3889