Summer can be a special time for kids: No school means days filled with friends, playing outside, and engaging in extracurriculars. But the end of the school year can also cause stress and hardship for some children and their families, especially those who depend on the meals provided to them during the school day for the nourishment they need to thrive.
Right now in Colorado an estimated 1 in 7 kids are projected to face food insecurity, defined by Feeding America as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.” A lack of access to sufficient nutritious food poses severe issues for individuals of all ages, and for children, it carries an even higher price.
Several studies have laid out the negative effects of food insecurity on kids’ physical and mental health, social skills, and performance in school. One such study published in The Journal of Nutrition concluded that “food insecurity was predictive of poor developmental trajectories in children [and] serves as an important marker for identifying children who fare worse in terms of subsequent development.”
To make sure the children in our community continue to have access to food when school is out of session, we partner with the USDA Summer Food Service Program, enabling us to provide upwards of 1,700 nutritious meals and snacks daily to Hunger Relief Partners to distribute to kids facing hunger.