Free meals are available this summer for low-income students on summer break
The Plain Dealer – Dozens of Northeast Ohio recreation centers, schools, libraries and social service centers will offer free lunches, snacks or other meals this summer to children who are served by the federal school lunch program for low-income children during the school year.
To find the nearest center or learn more, click on https://oh.cnpcares.com/summer/SfspFoodServByCnty.asp or call 1-800-648-1176.
More than 800,000 children in Ohio receive free or reduced-price lunches or snacks during the school year. But only about 10 percent of those children get the same level of balanced meals in the summer, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, largely because families don’t realize that other schools, community centers and churches step in when the school year ends.
There were about 1,400 meal centers open in Ohio last summer, reimbursed for food by the federal government. But only about 1,000 have signed up and been approved so far this year. Brown and Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, say that’s a result of the recession and local budget cuts that have curtailed community activities and recreation center hours.
