FREE Summer Meal Programs and Local Assistance

 By Jessica Thomas Lewis

The Summer Meals Program began yesterday at many local schools. This program provides free breakfast and lunch Monday-Thursday until August 18, 2016.  

Food insecurity: when people lack access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members (USDA)

Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem have some of the highest level of food insecurity in the nation.

• Since 2010, the Winston-Salem area has ranked worst in the nation for families with children reporting food insecurity. (Healthways Gallup Poll Food Research and Action Center August 2011)

18% of our overall population is food insecure; that amounts to nearly 60,000 people living in Forsyth County not sure where their next meal will come from.  

Did you know that 24.1% of children in Forsyth County live in a food insecure home?  During the school year, 78% of eligible students get their free lunch.  During the summer, that rate drops to 4%.

The Summer Meals Program helps.  These meals will be given to children under the age of 18 at nineteen elementary and middle schools in Forsyth County.  You can see the full list of locations on the WSFCS website here.  

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC partners with the community in many ways to address hunger.  In Forsyth County, Second Harvest Food Bank is a source of food and grocery products to 46 food pantries, four shelters and eight soup kitchens.  

Need Help?  Click here for a full list of food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in your county.

Second Harvest also helps support the Backpack programs at Cook, Gibson, Union Cross, Konnoak and Middle Fork elementary schools, East Forsyth Middle School and Parkland High School.  

H.O.P.E. of WInston-Salem delivers nutritious meals on Sunday to children in neighborhoods with high food insecurity.  To see the list for meal drop off locations, go here.  

There are more than 160 community gardens in Forsyth County that supplement local food pantries with fresh produce.  For a complete list of pantries that accept local produce go here.  

For a complete database of resources, including utility payment assistance, donation programs, clothing and furniture assistance and rent payment assistance, go here.

Sources:
Hunger Research
Forsyth Backpack Program
WSFCS Summer Meals
Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC
Nc211
Forsyth Community Gardening
H.O.P.E. of Winston-Salem

As long as hunger exists in this country of ours, we can and must do more.  We are a bountiful country where, clearly hunger is unacceptable.  And we have a moral imperative, really, to take action.
- Kevin Concannon, Undersecretary USDA

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