No Kid Hungry summer meal program helps local students

Brendan Wiesner, The Sault News
·3 min read
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RUDYARD — Students in Rudyard Area Schools will get a nutritional boost this summer through the nationwide No Kid Hungry meal program.

During school holidays and the summer months, students who rely on their school's free and reduced price meals are at risk of going hungry. No Kid Hungry aims to bridge that gap and make sure students have access to free, healthy meals all summer long. Many schools throughout the state and Eastern Upper Peninsula participate in the program, including Rudyard Area Schools.

According to the No Kid Hungry website, "For millions of children, summer is the hungriest time of year. During the school year, we can reach children with programs like breakfast, lunch and afterschool meals. But during the summer, when schools are closed, those meals disappear. The answer is free summer meals programs, run by local schools or community groups and open to any kid or teenager who needs a healthy meal when school is out."

Normally the program's meals are set up cafeteria-style, where students come in and sit down for a meal. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program introduced non-congregation meals that can be picked up and taken home.

Even though the program has transitioned back to regular serving, the pick-up meals are still more useful for some students.

"The idea is to make it more accessible to everyone so that more people can take advantage of it," said senior program manager Allison Cuesta. "Having the pick-up meals means that people don't have to conform to the set time of day that you have to bring your child to."

In Rudyard, breakfast is served from 7:30-8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at 1185 W. 2nd St.

Although there are other No Kid Hungry meal sites in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, including at Sault Area Middle School, the Boys & Girls Club of Bay Mills and Kinross Recreation Center, Rudyard is the only site offering a pick-up meal option.

Historically, officials said these meal programs only reach a small portion of the students who actually need it, and scheduling seems to be a major factor. Other factors include gas prices, extreme weather or living too far away from the meal locations.

During school holidays and the summer months, students who rely on their school's free and reduced price meals are at risk of going hungry. Summer meal programs help bridge that gap with free, healthy meals.
During school holidays and the summer months, students who rely on their school's free and reduced price meals are at risk of going hungry. Summer meal programs help bridge that gap with free, healthy meals.

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Thanks to a recent policy change made by Congress, the national program is now allowed to offer the non-congregation meals throughout the summer even though COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. Now, nonprofit organizations or school districts can host pick-up meal services outside of the usual sites.

"Thanks to Congress making these changes, we were able to make these changes permanent so that the kids could get to the meals that they were unable to access due to transportation needs or parents work schedules or whatever," said Cuesta.

To help support the new rollout of pick-up meals, No Kid Hungry has donated $150,000 in grants to eight different Michigan organizations in rural areas, including Rudyard Area Schools. The grants will go towards refrigeration, transportation and other aspects of maintaining the free lunch program at the discretion of the school district or nonprofit.

Parents and caregivers can text the word “FOOD” (or “COMIDA”) to 304-304 to access a free meal finder map and find sites in their neighborhood or school district.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: No Kid Hungry summer meal program helps local students