As recent as 2022, in Texas suffered from food insecurity. The state now leads the nation in food insecurity affecting nearly 5 million people.
In North Texas, around 778,000 people face hunger. About 287,000, or 1 in 5, are children. These struggles are only exacerbated during summer vacation when food is not as readily available during the school year.
But school districts across the region are working to help curb these struggles.
Mansfield ISD has been providing summer meals to children in the Mansfield area for over a month now. The district has served over 30,400 breakfast and lunch meals in that period.
During the 2021-2022 school year, MISD enrolled nearly .
These students, along with anyone under 18 or 21 with special needs, are eligible for these meals. Providing meals is something MISD Executive Director of Student Nutrition Rita Denton prioritizes, especially in the summer months.
鈥淥ur main goal in providing this service for our community is to combat food insecurity by offering nutritious and delicious meals for kids for no cost,鈥� Denton said. 鈥淪ummertime is an expensive season as our electricity bills rise and grocery prices continue to increase.鈥�
Another avenue for families in North Texas includes area food banks like the North Texas Food Bank.
The food bank runs several programs throughout the school year including 鈥淔ood 4 Kids鈥� Backpack Program and school pantries. However, during the summer, some school districts opt out of these programs, limiting the food bank鈥檚 reach.
The NTFB has ways around these pauses like pairing up with smaller food banks or churches to keep providing meals to children.
鈥淲e do have some current [school districts] right now that are passing out 鈥楩ood 4 Kids鈥� bags or doing our school pantry distributions,鈥� said Brandon Boling, community impact senior specialist for the NTFB. 鈥淚n lieu of [summer], we're also engaging our other partners that we have here to be able to give out 鈥楩ood 4 Kids鈥� bags. We tell all of our school campuses that will not be serving during the summer, please send your students and families to those partners that are around them.鈥�
A major issue feeding children is making sure meals are as nutritious as possible which is not an easy feat for the organization.
鈥淲e have a dedicated team here,鈥� Boling said. 鈥淥ur sourcing team that is trying daily to resource nutritious food for us. Especially fresh produce, shelf stable, kid friendly, nutritious products are definitely a little harder to come by.鈥�
But for school districts like Mansfield, the burden of providing nutritious meals fall on the hands of the USDA and TDA.
鈥淲e create our menus in-house,鈥� said Denton. 鈥淲e follow the SFSP [Summer Food Service Program] federal meal pattern requirements. We work in a lot of the kids鈥� favorite meal items from the school year. We also love incorporating fresh seasonal produce to our menus so our kids are seeing things like watermelon, blueberries and fresh strawberries.鈥�
There are still limitations for the district as children are required to remain on the meal site, which can pose a problem for parents.
鈥淥ur biggest challenge is that summers are busy for a lot of families and our regulations require that students eat the meals onsite,鈥� Denton said. 鈥淥ur challenge is setting times and locations that will be the most feasible for families to visit.鈥�
Although MISD does not partner directly with the North Texas Food Bank, the district still partners with other organizations to help feed its area children.
鈥淲e partner with Common Ground Network to provide additional meals and snacks for families in need,鈥� Denton said. 鈥淢ISD staff members in the guidance and counseling department and Summit High School volunteer once a week to distribute these items.鈥�
MISD currently provided meals at breakfast and lunch at various locations until July 26.
For more summer meal locations, text 鈥淔OOD鈥� to 304-304 or call 211.
Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is 四虎影院's summer 2024 SPJ news intern. Got a tip? Email Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela at erivas@kera.org.
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