End Summer Hunger
What’s the Summer Hunger Crisis?
More than 21 million students in the U.S. receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year. But when school ends, hunger starts for millions. That’s because only 3 million children have access to summer food programs, leaving 18 million without access to nourishing food during summer break.
How Does the Summer Hunger Crisis Affect Kids in Our Area?
In Middle Tennessee, 108,000 children are food insecure, which means they don’t always know where their next meal will come from. In Williamson County, that number is at least 3,600, with some data indicating 6,000-plus children.
How Does GraceWorks Help?
GraceWorks is a Franklin-based nonprofit that provides food for Neighbors in need. Last year, we distributed 1.3 million meals and more than 10,000 grocery carts full of food.
Each of our carts has six essential ingredients: milk, eggs, butter, protein-rich meats, fruits, and vegetables. Storing all this perishable food makes our operations more complicated, but it’s absolutely worth it. We want our Neighbors to get healthy, nutrient-dense food that keeps them thriving and strong.
During the summer, families depend on us to make up for the loss of school meal programs. As hard as low-income parents try, they often don’t have room in their budgets to provide their kids with healthy meal options in summer months, which leads to heartbreaking health consequences for their children. GraceWorks fills that gap for them.
What Happens When You End Summer Hunger for a Child?
Studies show that nourishing summer meals help with proper brain development, prevent summer learning loss, and lower rates of hospitalization and chronic disease. They also increase reading and math proficiency, leading to better grades and higher graduation rates.
And healthy summer meals don’t only help children. They also lift a huge burden off their parents’ shoulders. Sixty-nine percent of low-income parents will choose between buying food or paying a utility bill this summer.