Need for food donation grows in the summer

The face of hunger could be school age students who rely on getting a meal at school.

Now that school has ended for the year, there’s a growing need to help feed kids who come from lower income households.

“This program is important, because when school stops for the summertime, the kids lose access to the school lunches that they had been receiving all year long, so we step in to fill that gap,” said Stacy Brown, Coordinator of the food bank children’s program.

Brown heads up the Food for Kids program each supper for the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.

Just last summer, the program fed more than 5,000 kids.

In Columbia alone this year, they expect to feed between 100 and 150 kids each week.

“We have five sites this year. We have four park sites. We have Bear Creek Park, Oakland Park, Egan Street, and Indian Hills. Our 5th site is at Fire Station 1 on St. Charles Rd.

Brown said volunteers will be at the sites from noon to 1:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“We have a great partnership with the City of Columbia. They’re letting us use the four park sites free of charge,” said Brown.

“The city has also given us pool passes as an incentive to keep the kids coming back every day,” said Brown.

This means the children can go use the pools free of charge after they leave the feeding site.