HOUSTON (KIAH) — The Houston food Bank’s Summer Food Service Program is apart of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition program by the Texas Department of Agriculture. It’s an effort to help ensure children who rely on school meals will have a hot meal during the summer months while school is out. The Houston Food Bank aims to serve 10,000 meals a day this summer.
This program started on Monday and will continue throughout the summer to fill the gap of the nearly two million food-insecure children who live in Texas with lack of nutritious meals. The summer feeding program is designed for ages 18 and younger and enrolled students with disabilities up to age 21. Chief Development Officer Julie Voss says that volunteers have been a huge help in this process especially with federal budget cuts to food banks across the country. “With a lot of the federal funds the food bank is doing the same amount more with less. And so any support to help us ramp up for summer food, whether it’s volunteers or financial support, is greatly appreciated,” Voss says.
There will be two feeding locations added to the food bank’s 158 feeding sites in rural areas such as Sealy Christian Pantry in Sealy and Faith Mission WIC in Brenham. There are documents that may be required. Some Noncongregate sites may require parent/guardian to provide proof of school enrollment if picking up meals without their child or children present. Documents such as report cards, school enrollment letters or even birth certificates may also be forms of documents accepted…