By Elizabeth
Richards
RSU14 is in
a tight spot when it comes to providing summer meals for students who are
experiencing food insecurity.
None of the
school sites are eligible to provide free meals for all students, since they do
not meet the benchmark of over 50 percent of students qualifying for free or
reduced meals.
Since
schools closed in March for on-site instruction, the district has been
operating as an emergency food pantry through their backpack program said
Jeanne Reilly, Director of School Nutrition for RSU14. Initially, there was a lot of food they
needed to be put to use, since school had closed so abruptly because of the
COVID-19 crisis.
“At first,
they were fruits and vegetables that we had to either send home or throw away,”
Reilly said.
As time went
on, she said, funds from the backpack program were used to continue sending
families home with a supply of groceries that included produce, milk, cheese
and yogurt, as well as some of the traditional shelf stable foods typically
provided by the backpack program.
Summer
meals, however, pose a considerable challenge, she said. Dundee Park, which has been a traditional summer
meal site in years past, was not a viable option this year, said Reilly.
The district
looked for other places, but no locations in Windham or Raymond qualified.
“Right now,
we just don’t have an area where we could feed all families for free,” Reilly
said.
Although
they can’t provide free meals through a designated site this year, the district
is still committed to helping find solutions to food insecurity for students.
An end-of-school
year update for families lists open meal sites in other school districts,
including Westbrook, MSAD15, and the Lakes Region Schools.
According to
Reilly, at an open meal site, children from anywhere can go to get a meal.
She said
that this summer the open meal sites will provide both a lunch and a breakfast
to go for families, but the process is a bit different because of COVID-19
protocols and restrictions.
“It used to
be that students had to be present and meals had to be consumed on site,” Reilly
said. “This year, the parents have to be there to pick up and the meals cannot
be consumed on site.”
As
additional resources, Reilly said that food pantries in both Windham and
Raymond will operate over the summer for families as well.
Windham
residents can call the RSU14 food pantry for an appointment at 892-1931 and get
food once per week, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through
Thursday.
Raymond will
offer a Summer Backpack Food Program at Jordan Small Middle School on Tuesdays
from 1:30 to 3 p.m. where families can pick up a supply of shelf stable food,
and possibly some produce.
The program also
is working with St. Joseph’s College to potentially get produce from their
gardens, Reilly said.
Families
should also be made aware of the Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) benefit, Reilly said, which
provides additional grocery funds to families who qualify for free and reduced
meal prices.
If they previously
may have qualified or think they may qualify now as a result of a job loss or an
employee furlough, families should fill out the free/reduced meal application,
she said.
This application
can be filled out and submitted online, or families can contact Reilly by
sending an email to jreilly@rsu14.org for assistance.
Although the
P-EBT benefit is scheduled to expire at the end of June, there is legislation
currently in front of the Maine Senate that could extend this through the
summer when schools are closed, Reilly said.
Districts
like RSU14 are in an awkward position, with not enough families eligible for
free and reduced meals to qualify for programs that can help those in need, Reilly
said.
But with
some families in the area still in need of help, the school district has been
searching for ways to be of assistance.
“We’re left
struggling with how to provide for those families in the best way possible,”
she said.
Food
insecurity has often been cited as one of the most important public health
problems currently facing children in the United States. Numerous studies and previous
surveys conducted from 2013-to 2019 reveal that food insecurity has negative
impacts on the health of children.
In data collected in 2016 by the National Health
Interview Study, there is a direct correlation between household food
insecurity and significantly worse general health in children, including some
acute and chronic health problems, and heightened emergency room hospital
visits.
The study found that compared to rates in homes that are
not food insecure, children in food-insecure households had rates of lifetime
asthma diagnosis and depressive symptoms that were 19.1 percent and 27.9
percent higher, with rates of foregone medical care that were 179.8 percent
higher, and rates of emergency department use that were 25.9 percent higher.
The organization No Kid Hungry estimates that because of
the COVID-19 crisis and pandemic this year, as many as one in four children in
the United States could face food insecurity issues.
In April, a national survey of mothers with young children
commissioned by The Hamilton Project reported that the pandemic was responsible
for significant food insecurity in America.
Survey results showed that 17.4 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under reported that
since the pandemic started, “the children in my household were not eating
enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.”
Of those mothers, 3.4 percent reported that it was often the case that
their children were not eating enough due to a lack of resources since the coronavirus
pandemic began.
That same survey revealed that food insecurity in households
in America with children under the age of 18 has increased about 130 percent
from 2018 to 2020. <
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