Food programs aid community

• Published July 03, 2008

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This time of year, low-income families in South Sound turn to free lunch programs and area food banks to help feed their children.

During the school year, children living at or near the poverty line rely on free or reduced-price lunch and breakfast programs at school for their daily nutrition. For many children, it's the only hot meal of the day. Many children take home backpacks full of food — thanks to community support — to see them through the weekend.

When classes are dismissed for the summer, low-income families must turn elsewhere for help. The food banks and lunch programs are pivotal to family survival.

Free lunches are available for all children at locations in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Rochester. Olympia and Lacey operate their free summer food programs in coordination with free afternoon recreation programs with supervised and structured play periods.

No proof of income required

Tumwater's program is one of about a dozen in South Sound participating in the annual U.S. Department of Agriculture summer food service program, which is administered in this state by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The program feeds children 18 and younger in areas where 50 percent of children qualify for free and reduced lunches. No proof of income is required.

Youngsters 18 and younger receive lunches that include two or more servings of vegetables and fruits, one serving of grain or bread, one serving of meat or a meat alternative, and milk.

Deanna Cortez speaks for many other parents when she says the free lunch program is a blessing for her seven children. Cortez said the meals help her and her husband stretch their food budget for their children, ages 3 months through 14 years.

"We both work very hard, but with seven children, everything is so expensive now," said Cortez, who works two jobs and whose husband works full-time. "It's a nice little break to make sure they can get enough to eat."

Demand up 27 percent

Robert Coit, executive director of the Thurston County Food Bank, said his staff and volunteers are serving 27 percent more families this year than last, just less than 3,000 families per month. He said skyrocketing gasoline prices are a factor in the increased demand. Families are using their money to fill up the gasoline tank, then turning to food banks to feed their family.

"Clearly the rising cost of food is another factor," Coit said. "It's across the board — protein, wheat, pasta, meat, dairy, chicken — they are all affected by higher prices."

The third component driving increased demand at food banks is the economic downturn and the rising unemployment rate, Coit said.

While the free summer lunch programs are critical, many families struggle to get their children to the lunch site. "Transportation is the access barrier," he said. "It's tougher to get the kids to the lunch program every day where they get one meal than it is to get to the food bank where they get three meals for three days and we are right by the Intercity Transit transfer station. That's huge. They are willing to juggle the car, juggle the gas, juggle the bus to pull it off."

Most South Sound residents don't give a lot of thought to meal preparation. It's heart wrenching to know there are families who spend hours each day trying to figure out where the next meal is coming from and how to tap into the social service safety net to make ends meet.

We're not talking about some Third World country, but low-income families living right here in South Sound. The community is blessed to have programs where hard working people can turn for help to feed their families.