6/2/2014
Plus your fat asses can stay in bed longer!
Ramirez Thomas Elementary School Principal Robin Noble has seen the negative aftereffects when children return to school in August after a summer of not eating right. All of her school’s students participate in the free and reduced-price lunch program, which is a federal indicator of poverty. This summer, however, her school also is one of about 20 sites within the city that will offer free meals to students through Santa Fe Public Schools’ Summer Food Service Program.
Plus your fat asses can stay in bed longer!
Summer program provides free meals for children
Maralis Norwood, 9, gets a cup of applesauce at the Gonzales Community School cafeteria Friday during lunchtime for children participating in Santa Fe Public Schools’ Summer Arts Program. This week, Gonzales and other schools will begin offering free summer meals to children between the ages of 1 to 18, regardless of whether they are public school students. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
The program, which starts this week, offers free breakfast and lunch to children between the ages of 1 to 18, even if they do not attend public schools.
“The value of these free lunch programs is huge for our families that are struggling to make ends meet,” Noble said. “During the school year, these kids get free breakfast and lunch at school, so you can imagine that it’s quite an expense to do that for a family that lives paycheck to paycheck, or doesn’t have a paycheck at all.”
The summer program is funded entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department. CYFD spokesman Henry Varela said the program last year served about 2 million meals at 690 sites statewide, at a cost of about $6.7 million.
Santa Fe Public Schools served more than 1,500 lunches per day and about 700 breakfasts a day last summer, said Betsy Cull, the district’s assistant director of student nutrition.
“The economy is not great for a lot of our parents,” Cull said. “We offer two meals that can help a family that may not be able to purchase that food in their home so their kids remain healthy and nourished.”
The food-relief charitable group Feeding America, using 2012 data, reports that 1 in 6 Americans suffer from “food insecurity,” meaning they don’t have enough food for their families. Feeding America’s most recent data shows that nearly 19 percent of New Mexicans deal with food insecurity. A 2013 Food Research and Action Center report listed New Mexico 21st in hunger ratings for 2012.
Jennifer Ramo, executive director of the Albuquerque-based nonprofit New Mexico Appleseed, which works to end hunger in the state, said many kids who do not have access to school food during the summer tend to eat junk food, which in turn can increase obesity rates.
The national Summer Food Service Program began in the late 1960s, and Cull said this is at least the 12th year Santa Fe Public Schools has participated in it. Many of the school sites where food is offered also have regular summer school or city-sponsored arts and athletics programs occurring at the same time, she said.
At Ramirez Thomas, for instance, about 280 kids are enrolled in various academic summer school programs at the site, and thus can easily partake in the program.
Parents and other adults also may eat at any of the sites, although they must pay $1.40 for breakfast and $3.50 for lunch. Exact change is required, Cull said.
Most of the sites serve breakfast from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and all offer lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For a full list of participating sites in Santa Fe, visit www.sfps.info.
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