In America, there are one in five children who do not have consistent access to food in their household. Over 15.5 million children received a school breakfast, and 29.9 million children received a school lunch on an average day during the 2021–2022 school year. Without adequate nutrition, children are more likely to develop thinner bones, heart disease, diabetes and other health problems. Additionally, malnourished children performed poorly on tests of attention, working memory, learning and memory. For many children, school meals are the only way to get access to nutritious food, often the only consistent meals they will get through the day. But what about the summer?

For more than ninety days, these same children who rely on food services from schools through the school year are faced with no access while schools are on break.

As someone who has volunteered over summers to help assemble boxes of meals to distribute to local schools and seen the looks of relief when the children are handed their meals, I believe it is very important to address this issue. 

I am calling upon the Food and Nutrition Service in the US Department of Agriculture to mandate that all schools from kindergarten to 12th grade offer free lunches to children that are eligible during the summer time.  If parents are struggling to provide food, schools should have the responsibility of providing and distributing meals during summer break at schools. All children deserve to be fed and know where their next meal is coming from.