Many people may not even realize this, but with schools closed for summer vacation, childhood hunger will only increase. For many low income families, schools provide their children with free, nutritious meals for breakfast and lunch so that these kids will not starve throughout the day. 22 million kids across the country rely on school meals. When schools close for summer, often those meal programs shut down too.
A lot of kids think summer is great and it is a 90 day break to have no worries in the world. But many children don’t think the same. For many kids, summer is a 90 day stretch of hunger, waiting for the schools to re-open so that they can have their reliable source of food back. When free school meals were put into play for certain families in New York State, it helped so many families fight back against food insecurity. And during the pandemic, these free meals were a blessing. But now with school out, many of these children do not have their guaranteed free meals.
My solution to this issue is that we should have schools open all year long, especially the cafeterias, so that children can still have that safe place to go to during the summer and so that they can never have to worry about when their next meal may be.
no1-hungry 