AKRON, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited a summer feeding site where children can receive free breakfasts, lunches, and snacks through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) in Akron today. The program, sponsored by Urban Vision Ministry, is one of more than 30 in Summit County where children can get nutritious meals during summer vacation.

“For many families across Ohio, the beginning of summer means vacations and summer camps and barbeques,” Brown said. “But for too many others, it means stress over how to care for children while parents work, or how to feed children nutritious meals without the school lunches they count on throughout the rest of the year. That’s why every year we work to get the word out about the Summer Food Service Program so that families know the end of the school year doesn’t mean an end to food services for their children. Summer break shouldn’t mean going hungry.”

The Urban Vision Ministry site serves around 100 students each day and offers after-school tutoring and supplemental learning opportunities to children in Akron. Brown was joined at the visit by Dan Flowers, President and CEO of Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, Burnett Williams, Vice Chair of the Board at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, and Beth Knorr, Executive Director of the Summit County Food Policy Coalition, and Rodney Matthews, Executive Director of Urban Vision Ministry.

In 2015, more than 50,000 Ohio children received free daily meals at more than 1,700 sites around Ohio – run by local libraries, churches, schools, and community centers. While the program is reaching tens of thousands of children, only about 10 percent of Ohio children who receives a free meal at school during the year access a summer feeding program. Brown is working to raise awareness so more children can get the healthy meals they need during the summer.

A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Brown authored legislation that expands school lunch programs to ensure Ohio kids can get nutritious meals during summer vacation. The SFSP provides free meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need throughout the summer months when they are out of school. SFSP is run locally by approved sponsors, including school districts, local government agencies, camps, or private nonprofit organizations.

In January, the Senate Agriculture Committee cleared legislation to reauthorize critical childhood nutrition programs and included a provision Brown authored that would increase access to summer federal child nutrition programs by:

  • Making it easier for children in rural areas who can’t get to a feeding site to still get nutritious meals.
  • Allowing children to eat meals off-site once certain conditions are met.

While serving as chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition, and Family Farms, Brown wrote the Hunger-Free Schools Act, which helps reduce paperwork and enroll already-eligible students in childhood nutrition programs through direct certification. Brown’s bill was the centerpiece of the anti-hunger component of a new law enacted in 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

 

 

 

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