After completing book reports, science fair projects, and exams, nothing sounds better than a nice long break from school. This month, kids are trading tardy bells and pop quizzes for video game marathons, sleep-away camps, beach trips, and all the fun they can pack into summer break. For 75 days this summer, kids can be kids.
Unless they are among the one in five kids in Central Florida who faces hunger this summer. Rising rent, fluctuating gas prices, and sticker shock at the supermarket strained already tight household budgets this spring. Now, with kids home from school, the need to fill the gap left by cafeteria-provided breakfasts and lunches is causing more families to seek help with putting food on the table.
Hunger doesn’t take a summer break. And, with your help, neither does Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and its robust hunger-relief network. This summer, 67 sites will serve fresh, nutritious meals to kids age 18 and under for free.
“The kids want bicycles, but we need food,” explains Lilly, who brings her grandkids and great-nephews to a summer meal site in Sanford. Lilly’s family and kids across five counties can enjoy a hot lunch every weekday. This year’s menu meets childhood nutrition standards while offering a mix of popular dishes such as turkey burgers and BBQ chicken with collard greens and introducing kids to new foods from different cultures with the new Floribbean picadillo and cheese calzone.
With food in their bellies, kids can get back to the business of being kids this summer, thanks to you.
