Southwest Georgia organizations help feed children over winter break

ALBANY — With schools out for winter break, many see it as a time for relaxation and spending time with family. Some children struggle with food insecurity because they do not have a stable food source while at home.

Dougherty County School System Public Information Officer J.D. Sumner said that, to help bridge the gap, families in need were referred to partner organizations such as Second Harvest of South Georgia, Albany Area YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany, Lord’s Pantry and churches for the nutritional needs that could not be met over the holiday break.

Second Harvest Chief Marketing Officer Eliza McCall said Georgia’s second congressional district, which contains Dougherty, Lee and Baker counties, has “the highest rate of child food insecurity of any congressional district in the nation.”

“That’s higher than the Mississippi Delta; that’s higher than Native American reservations; and it’s higher than South-Central L.A.,” McCall continued. “Sixty-five percent of the state’s produce is grown in our service territory. But it’s not that we don’t have enough food, it’s that kids don’t have access to it.”

McCall said Second Harvest’s Kids Café served 610,523 meals and snacks to children in south Georgia in 2018.

“It’s a lot, and that’s not even close to what needs to happen to really see meaningful progress for kids in south Georgia, our 30-county area,” she said. “What you have to consider is that, for most of southwest Georgia, a large portion of kids — sometimes upwards of 85 or 90 percent — rely on free and reduced lunch at school.

“When school’s not in, they don’t have access to that. So you take families that are already having a hard time making ends meet and putting food on the table, and now they have to provide two extra meals per child per day. That doesn’t always happen. It makes things much more difficult on families that are struggling already.”

McCall said Kids Café currently operates in about 50 sites and partners with after-school programs, such as the YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs, based in the Albany area.

“They don’t have the ability to produce the meals,” McCall said. “It’s not one of our strengths to run an after-school program; they’re already doing a great job at it. Everybody doing what their strengths are, we can make sure more kids get fed.”

The chief marketing officer added that the U.S. Department of Agriculture partially reimburses Second Harvest for the program, which allows the food bank to provide nutritious meals free of charge.

During the winter break, Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany Area Director Jason Belk said students are funnelled to the organization’s largest facilities — the Thornton Park and Jane Willson units — to participate in physical activities, socialize and have healthy meals and snacks.

“(The meals) are just a part of the Boys & Girls Clubs’ daily programs,” Belk said. “You bring your kid and sign them up with the Boys & Girls Clubs, that’s just one of the perks of being a member of the (clubs). The Boys & Girls Clubs is unique like that.

“A lot of organizations that serve children, if you sign them up to the organization, you have to pay for the added extracurricular activities. But with the Boys & Girls Clubs, you come in, have your kid join, and there’s no extra for everything we offer. Every day that we’re open, our children get a meal.”

Along with how food insecurity disproportionately affects rural children, McCall said she wants people to understand that everyone is “just one thing away from food insecurity.”

“One accident, one storm, one job loss. One big thing can throw almost all us into food insecurity,” she said