COLUMBUS, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) helped serve meals at Barnett Community Recreation Center, one of more than 250 sites in Franklin County where children can receive free breakfasts, lunches, and snacks through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Brown was joined by Tony Collins, Director of Columbus Recreation and Parks, which runs the site 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.”
“Ensuring the children of Columbus have equitable access to nutrition, parks space and recreational opportunities is the heart of our core purpose,” Collins said. “These are building blocks for our youth to be part of making Columbus America’s opportunity city as envisioned by Mayor Ginther.”
Last summer, Columbus Recreation and Parks’ Summer Food Program served more than 630,000 meals at more than 230 locations. 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:
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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