Food Insecurity and Summer Food Programs

Local struggles with food insecurity as well as ways to help and get help were in the news recently. WILL had a short blurb on area food insecurity last week:

Eastern Illinois Counties Have Some Of The Highest Food Insecurity Rates In The State
A new report from the nonprofit Feeding America found that food insecurity in east-central Illinois is higher than in most parts of the state.

Map the Meal Gap 2019 uses data from the federal government and food price data from Nielsen to look at the number of people who struggle to access or afford nutritious meals at the county level across the U.S.

Champaign County had an overall food insecurity rate of 15 percent, with Vermillion County and Coles County closely behind at 14 percent, the analysis found. All three counties have higher food insecurity rates than Cook County, home to Chicago. Vermillion County also had the highest rate of childhood food insecurity in the east-central Illinois region at 20 percent.

Full blurb and audio clip here. Tom's Mailbag recently had a question on school lunch debt and donation options as well:

"After reading about school lunch debt and the controversy in Rhode Island, I was wondering what the policy regarding lunch debt is for the schools in our area. Is there a way to donate money to local kids/schools in our area that have lunch debt?"

Yes, but there is no longer "lunch-shaming" for students in Illinois. A law approved last year states that every school is required to provide a meal for every student who requests one...

"The district does try to reach out to families regarding (breakfast and lunch) balances," said Champaign school district spokesman John Lyday, "but we also still do accept donations for meal balances."

As of May 20, he said, the school district was owed $55,885 in meal debts.

Urbana's policy was different in that all students were and are able to eat breakfast and lunch free of charge thanks to the federal Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act.

More at the full Mailbag article here. Summer Meal programs have also started up again locally and across the State. From WILL:

Summer Food Programs In Illinois Provide Meals To Children When School’s Out
Programs that provide free meals to children throughout the summer are kicking off all across Illinois.

The state's more than a thousand summer meal sites are federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered through the Illinois State Board of Education to ensure children have access to healthy meals when school is out of session...

CUPHD will provide breakfast and lunch in its lobby located at 201 W. Kenyon Road in Champaign. The program started last Thursday and will continue through mid-August.

Mobile site visits will occur on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 pm, beginning June 11, at Crestview Park in Urbana; and on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning June 13, at Victory Park in Urbana. On Fridays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sola Gratia will hold a pay-what-you-can market outside Dollar Tree in Urbana.

To find a list of all summer food programs across Illinois, visit www.summermealsillinois.org—or text FoodIL to 877-877 to receive information via text about food programs in certain zip codes.

For more information on the CUPHD summer meals program and other available services, visit www.c-uphd.org.

Additional information at the full article here. The News-Gazette had similar coverage here. On the Summer Meals Illinois website it appeared there were also area summer food programs at locations in Rantoul as well.