Feeding Appalachia's hungry children through the summer [View all]

For many poor and low income children, the meals provided at school may be the only food they receive. That means that during the summer these children may have no source for regular meals and it's up to us to make up the difference. No child in America should go to bed hungry every night and wake every morning to another day without food. The organization Feeding America has a backpack/summer meals program that addresses this problem.

http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight-hunger/programs-and-services/child-hunger/summer-food-program.aspx
Summer Food Program
Summer Food Program Concept
While over 21 million children participated in the free or reduced priced school meal program in 2013, 3.5 million children received meals during the summer months, largely due to the lack of local programs.
To help meet the nutritional needs of children during the summer months, several of our food banks operate summer feeding programs.

Program Summary
The mission of the Summer Food Program is to meet the needs of hungry children in the summer by providing them with nutritious meals and snacks when other resources are not available. Summer Food Programs may be meal based programs, typically reimbursed through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), or may be innovative distribution models that are specifically designed to fill the gap in services for children during the summer months.

Program Objective
• Provide nutritious, healthy meals, food packages, vouchers and/or snacks to children at-risk of hunger in the summer months when school is not in session.
• Distribute food in easily accessible and safe environments.
National Program Data
• Last year, 131 member food banks participate in the summer food program
• The Summer Food Program nearly 8 million meals were distributed to children through Feeding America food banks.

Participating food banks in Central Appalachia:
West Virginia: http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=WV
Kentucky: (none listed for Appalachian region) http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=KY
North Carolina: http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=NC
Tennessee: http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=TN
Ohio: http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=OH&Page=1

Some states listed above have few or one food bank for their Appalachian region. If you know of other Appalachian food banks with similar summer meals/backback programs, can you list them here? I’ll start….

Scioto County, Ohio
The Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund http://stevenshopefund.org./
The Hope Fund’s summer meals program: http://stevenshopefund.org./SummerMeals.html