Imagine a student leaving school each Friday afternoon not knowing if they will eat before returning to school Monday morning. Now imagine, instead of two days, the child must endure two months of food insecurity during schools’ summer vacations. For many area children, food insecurity, or not having access to a sufficient source of nutritional food, is not a figment of their imaginations. It’s reality.
Luckily for local, low-income students suffering from food insecurity, the Columbus Municipal and Starkville-Oktibbeha school districts participate in a national summer food program, serving some of Mississippi’s nearly 70 percent of public school students eligible for free or reduced meals during the school year.
According to CMSD Superintendent Philip Hickman, the school district serves an average of over 800 meals daily to children. Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District serves an average of over 4,000 meals per week, according to the district’s Child Nutrition Office Manager Tiffany Killian.
“It’s going well,” says Columbus High School Site Manager Paula Baker. “We’re just glad to do something for the community.”
Through the federally funded Summer Food Service Program, sites in low-income areas host summer meal programs, and all children 18 and under eat free.
The SFSP aims to curb child hunger by ensuring children have access to nutritious meals when schools are not in session.
Under the direction of the Columbus Municipal School District, Columbus High School, Columbus Middle School, Cook Elementary, Columbus Boys and Girls Club and Hunt Intermediate School host summer meal programs. Armstrong Middle School and Sudduth Elementary School provide summer meals under the Starkville-Oktibbeha school district.
Baker, who has worked food service with CMSD for 21 years, says students constantly come through her cafeteria during the summer.
Athletes, summer camp participants and summer school students all take advantage of the free meals offered through Columbus High School. In addition, Baker says Columbus’ Community Counseling Services drives children to CHS, and families visit so their children do not go hungry.
Ontwanette Williams of Columbus brings her kids to lunch every day Monday through Friday when Columbus High’s cafeteria is open.
“I have six kids of my own, and it helps a lot with being able to stretch groceries when they’re out of school,” says Williams.
Three of her children eat around her at a cafeteria table: Anthony Smith, 8, will attend third grade in the fall at Stokes-Beard Elementary; Jahden Smith, 10, will attend fourth grade at Stokes-Beard; and Ziehr Smith, 11, will be a sixth grader at Columbus Middle School. Williams says she usually brings her kids plus four or five other children whose parents cannot afford to bring their own kids because they work or lack transportation.
After Columbus High School ends its summer meal program on June 30, Williams says they will likely go to Hunt’s site or the Boys and Girls Club, which serve breakfast and lunch through July 22.
The SFSP sites in Columbus and Starkville equal only a few of the 777 sites throughout Mississippi offering free summer meals to children.
Mississippi State Director for Child Nutrition Scott Clements says Mississippi’s sites served close to 2.5 million summer meals in 2015. This figure represented a 7 percent increase from 2014 and corresponded with a 95 percent increase in Mississippi sites over the past five years.
“In the summer we have this gap because many children rely on the school year for meals,” says Clements. “Then, when summer comes around they are, in many ways, left without.”
The United States Department of Agriculture funds the SFSP, and states administer monetary resources to their local sites. Mississippi sites received over $7 million in reimbursement from the USDA for SFSP meals in summer 2015.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Mississippi’s percentage of children eligible for free or reduced lunch in recent years has been the second highest out of all states, at over 20 percentage points above the national average.
CMSD’s free or reduced meal rate reaches close to 90 percent, almost 20 percentage points higher than the Mississippi average. Approximately 70 percent of students in the SOCSD receive free or reduced meals.
“To me it means a lot,” says Williams. “I feel like [the food program] really helps.”
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