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Syracuse summer lunch program rolls out a food truck

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Now that school’s out, the Syracuse City School District will start offering breakfast and lunch to inner city children through its Summer Food Service Program.  But the program doesn’t reach all the children who may be going hungry without that daily breakfast, lunch and snack they get during the school year.

Every summer, the Syracuse City School District feeds 4,000 students and community children every day at parks, community centers and schools.  But Annette Marchbanks, the assistant director of food and nutrition for the district says that pales in comparison to the 15,000-plus that get lunch every day during the school year.

“We do over 10,000 breakfasts a day, 15 thousand-plus lunches a day and another 7,000 school snacks a day.  We’re missing a lot of kids. They didn’t go away. Where are they?” asked Marchbanks. “I know there is a need, I just can’t figure out what is the barrier for them coming.”

She says part of it could be a lack of transportation, and the fact that some of the sites are places kids are not used to going to. So the district will try something new this year: a kind of food truck that will travel between three Syracuse libraries.

Credit Syracuse City School District
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Syracuse City School District
One Syracuse child at a school district summer lunch program last year.

“We will be stopping for 20 minutes at a time, and setting up a table right in front of the library and handing out cold nutritious meals. So there will be sandwiches and fruits and vegetables and milk,” she said.

Marchbanks says the district came upon the idea after discussions with library officials who saw kids heading to corner stores for more unhealthy snacks while visiting libraries. The district will use its refrigerated food delivery truck to transport the lunches.  And Marchbanks even hopes to offer some fun incentives like stickers or pencils, and a push towards some physical activity, by drawing up a hopscotch board next to the truck.

"I don’t think kids know how to play hopscotch anymore. I don’t think they know what hopscotch is. My goal this summer is to have kids learn and play hopscotch. Because besides offering nutritious meals, I’d like to see us be a vehicle encouraging kids to be physically active in the summer as well."

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.