During the summer in Elmwood Place, a village in Ohio, librarians prepare for the arrival of about 70 hungry children.
A woman from a nearby church — the program sponsor — delivered lunch. Librarians assembled each share. Then LeeAnn McNabb, the branch manager, summoned children, one by one, to get food.
Hundreds of libraries are now serving federally funded summer meals to children to ensure that they don’t go hungry. The change is part of an effort to stay relevant to patrons, and to pair nutrition and educational activities so low-income children get summertime learning, too.
”Libraries see that kids in their communities are hungry,” said Natalie Cole, a library programs consultant for the California State Library. She adds that in addition to meals, they are providing learning opportunities for children throughout the summer.
Local sponsors like camps, operators of school feeding programs or churches procure food to be prepared, get it delivered to sites like libraries, and handle most of the administrative tasks and paperwork for reimbursement.
The meals are paid for through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service program. In 2016, it funded roughly 50,000 sites nationwide as a way to feed kids who rely on free or reduced meals during the school year.
In 2016, public libraries in California provided over 203,000 meals for children at 139 sites, up from just 17 in 2013, said Dr. Cole, who has a doctorate in librarianship.
After the U.S.D.A. push to involve libraries, Hunger Solutions New York, a nonprofit in Albany, reached out to librarians in the state. New York has more than 115 participating libraries this summer.
These summer meals are attracting new patrons. Andie Apple, the interim director of libraries for Kern County Libraries in California said, ”They don’t just come for the meals and leave. They come for meals and stay.”
Read more here.
Source: The New York Times, 31 July 2017