The Sharing Table at the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Summer Meals for Kids Program at the Addison Public Library. (Photo Bill Dwyer/for Chronicle Media)
The end of the school year is a welcome respite for most school-age kids, but for some who rely on the free lunches provided by most school districts, summer can also mean hunger and inadequate nutrition.
The Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, which serves 13 Illinois counties in the north part of the state, is working to bridge the gap in school lunches over the summer in several ways.
“Summer should be a time for children to grow, play, and thrive, not worry about where their next meal will come from,” Julie Yurko, president and CEO of Northern Illinois Food Bank, said.
The food bank is teaming up with dozens of partners throughout much of its coverage area to make healthy lunches available to as many children as possible through its Summer Meals for Kids Program and other outreach efforts.
“As food costs continue to rise and many families face increased financial pressure, our Summer Meals Program, Family Fresh Mart distributions, added mobile food distributions, and Summer EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) resources help provide nutritious food for children who depend on school meals during the year and are at risk of summer hunger,” Yurko said.
The Summer Food Service Program is operated at 138 partner sites across its coverage area, including in DuPage, Kane, Winnebago, DeKalb, Lake and McHenry counties. They offer a combination of breakfast, lunch, and/or snack options, available at no cost and with no registration or identification required, for any hungry child under 18. The meal sites include schools, libraries, park districts, churches, community centers, and other neighborhood locations where people can just walk in.
The programs began launching last week. On Friday, June 5, the first Summer Meals for Kids Program was held at the food bank’s Neighborhood Market on Sandy Hollow Road in Rockford.
Wednesday morning, June 3, the NIFB’s Kendra Rees was working with a group of volunteers to ready a table just inside the main doors of the Addison Public Library. The volunteers are part of the Family Fresh Mart program which provides fresh produce to those in need. Two older teens, Lili Zavalas and Sarah Charles placed various fruit and vegetables into bags for people to take away.
Charles said it’s a simple matter of caring about others, saying, “This is something we are grateful we have the opportunity to do.” Zavalas echoed that, saying she is pleased to be able to support a program that “helps a lot of (people) who can’t provide their own families with groceries.”
Just down the hall, another group of teen volunteers were working under the supervision of the Addison Library’s Elizabeth Lynch to ready a public event room with a kitchenette that serves as the “restaurant” for the Summer Meals for Kids Program.
“We run it like a restaurant,” said Lynch. “So, there’s a host (who greats arrivals). We have servers, who make sure everyone gets to the kitchenette. Boxed lunches are handed out at the small kitchenette counter. There are even people handing out coloring pages for the younger kids.”
There are two primary types of programs the food bank and its partners run – open programs and registered programs. Formal pantries require registration, with name and address and other information taken. Open programs are conducted at public sites where people can just walk in.
“For the Family Fresh Mart, we do take information but it’s solely to put resources in areas,” Rees said. “We don’t ask for a name, registration or address, we just asked for a ZIP code, number kids in the household, number of adults.”
The two meal programs take a lot of planning and attention to detail. Keeping track of all the food, what’s needed, what went out the door and how much was used and how much needs to be ordered, is the job of Operations Supervisor Sam Michaels and the Child Nutrition team. Rees said she and Michaels and others sit down regularly to plan and assess.
“She’s very meticulous with what she does,” Rees said. “At making sure each location gets the correct order, gets the correct amount, has sufficient food for the children there, and is also not wasteful.”
In addition to available lunches at Summer Meals sites, families may also qualify for Summer EBT benefits, which provide eligible children with a $120 EBT card to purchase groceries during summer months. Heraty and Rees encourage families to check eligibility and apply if needed. Most eligible children are automatically enrolled, but some families still need to complete an application.
The 138 Summer Food Service Program sites will be open Monday through Friday for between two weeks to 10 weeks. The Addison Public Library’s Summer Meals for Kids program will run through Aug. 6.
The demand is ever increasing. “Last year we served over 7,000 meals a day over the summer,” Heraty said. “This year we’re expecting that it will be higher.”
The growing demand, which Heraty characterized as a “rising tide rather than a tsunami,” is due to several factors, including the cost of food, the rising price of gasoline, and changes to the SNAP benefit requirements.
“We’re always looking to (add sites),” Rees said. “Especially in rural areas where access is limited. We’re looking to expand the produce distribution to ten sites next summer.”
The impact of federal cuts to social programs was underscored by news on June 4 that the House had passed a bill that would cut $141 million from the WIC program, which funds the provision of fruit and vegetables for 5.4 million children and pregnant women.
The bill has not yet passed the Senate.
To find a Summer Meals for Kids Program site near you, visit “Summer Meals” at SolveHungerToday.org. Families can apply for Summer EBT online at Illinois ABE Access Portal https://abe.illinois.gov/sebtPortal/. The application deadline is Aug. 14.
