Caldwell County Schools has been selected as one of six state organizations to receive part of a $91,900 No Kid Hungry grant, aiming to provide more summer meals for children in rural communities.
According to No Kid Hungry campaign Manager Laura Rice, traditional summer meal programs have only reached a fraction of kids in rural communities, but non-congregate summer meal flexibilities have been a game changer in recent years. She says No Kid Hungry’s grant funding supports summer meal programs that make meals more accessible for rural families by delivering meals to children who need them or allowing parents to pick meals up at a central location to be taken home for their kids, oftentimes for multiple days at a time. This summer, she says No Kid Hungry Kentucky grants are supporting significant increases to the availability of summer meals in key counties throughout the Commonwealth that have lacked access for many years.
Throughout the school year, officials said free and reduced-price meals help keep children nourished. But when summer arrives and schools close, these meals vanish, creating a real challenge for families, especially in rural Kentucky. According to a recent survey, nearly all rural Kentucky families, 94.1%, reported higher grocery bills during summer break, making it tougher to keep healthy food on the table when budgets are most stretched.
No Kid Hungry Kentucky is a public-private coalition between No Kid Hungry and Feeding Kentucky
