No child should have to go without meals. Yet that is precisely what is going to happen over the 12-day winter break for many Baltimore City children.
More than 45,000 students enrolled at Baltimore City schools eat free and reduced price lunches. Well over 25,000 students also eat breakfast at their school. Now that school is out for the holidays, these tens of thousands of children will have to forgo the healthy and warm meals they typically get during the school day.
Likewise, thousands of students who participate in after school programs will not be able to get supper. Over 1 million suppers are served throughout the city each school year through after school programs.
We know nutritious meals play a crucial role in children's health, growth and development and learning. Further, mealtimes and the time families spend together preparing and cooking healthy foods foster and maintain family stability and provide nourishment well beyond protein, vitamins and minerals.
Efforts to get food to kids and families over the extended winter school closure do exist. In 45 of the city's more than 180 public schools, for example, Baltimore's Community School coordinators are working with community partners to either arrange for larger-than-usual school-based food drops and food pantry pickups or plan to send students home with bags or boxes of food on the day or two before winter break begins tomorrow. Some Community School coordinators are even looking into whether partners can set up alternative drop sites to get food to families halfway through winter break.
Non-school-based food pantries, private backpack initiatives and countless community and faith-based efforts also will help feed students during the long break. However, as helpful as it is to send a child home with a backpack full of nonperishable food or see that they and their family have a holiday dinner, at best, it's a patchwork solution, and many kids will still go hungry.
Communities should be allowed to pilot and implement innovative ways to make sure more children receive food during these times of uncertainty.
One of the major obstacles to this innovation is the "congregate feeding requirement" of the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program which mandates children eat at the location where meals are provided. The upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which takes place in 2015, offers the perfect opportunity to update the way children in need can receive meals.
There is a lot that makes sense about the congregate model. Children eat healthy meals with friends in a safe environment, and congregate feeding also works well when an after school program is operating.
But during school closures, such as holidays, inclement weather days, and winter and spring breaks, if programs are not operating, meals cannot be served, and school-based pantries do not open. Flexibility in the congregate requirement in certain situations, such as during winter and spring breaks, would allow schools and community organizations to be reimbursed for meals sent home with children or picked up by their families.
Family League along with numerous Baltimore City nonprofits and national anti-hunger organizations are advocating for ways to give meal providers more flexibility to use the most effective and efficient delivery models, so that we can reach hungry kids no matter where they live or what time of year.
We can each do our part to make sure our children are getting the food they need to grow up healthy.
No matter where you live, you can help make sure children get the meals they need during the winter break. Reach out to your neighborhood school, your church, community organization or neighborhood association and see what they are doing to help feed the hungry in the coming weeks.
And in the New Year, we, our local representatives, and ultimately Congress must step up and make sure the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which only happens every five years, does even more to eliminate childhood hunger. Please contact your federal representative to let them know the importance of flexibility around where kids eat their meals, allowing them to bring food home from meal sites. The bottom line is simple — every child deserves access to food, each and every day.
Jonathon Rondeau is president and CEO of the Family League of Baltimore. His email is jrondeau@familyleague.org.