It may be the dead of winter, but Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is thinking about summer. At Binghamton High School Monday, Gillibrand touted her new bill that would expand access to meal programs for students during summer vacation.
The move comes ahead of congressional debate on nutrition standards at schools and would ensure needy students three meals a day during the summer.
"Many summer meal sites provide childcare to working parents and run all day. But most sites are only able to serve two meals, so if you have an extended daycare that goes to six or 6:30, those kids are going to be hungry," Gillibrand says. "So being able to provide that additional meal for parents who work late would make a huge difference in the well-being of these kids."
Mark Bordeau is head of food services at Broome-Tioga BOCES. He says transportation funding would be a big help in getting food to kids who need it.
"We've tried summer programs, like at Whitney Point, we've tried a summer program and kids can't get there. If you have the school right on Route 11 there, but there's not kids who can get there," Bordeau says.
Last year only about 20 percent of kids in Broome County who qualified for summer meal programs utilized the service, according to the Southern Tier Food Bank.
The bill would help pay for buses to drive kids in rural areas to the summer meal programs, increase access to farm-to-table foods, and also lower the threshold for school districts to qualify for free summer meal programs.
