BARNSTABLE – The US Department of Agriculture is again offering free lunches to children in need on the Cape throughout the summer.
Food 4 Kids, which is an outreach ministry of the Church of the Holy Spirit, addresses the need to fight childhood hunger and provides meals for the eight towns on the Lower and Outer Cape.
Ruth Campbell, the director of Food 4 Kids, said 700 children a day are receiving meals in her region this year compared to 500 last year.
Campbell said lack of food throughout the summer can affect children heading into the next school year.
“A lot of the children really lose their learning ability and it takes them a while in the fall to catch up,” she said.
Campbell said there are 14 meal sites across the eight towns of the Outer and Lower Cape for children to receive food.
“There is no paperwork or anything,” she said. “They can come and have a lunch and some of the sites have breakfast and some of the sites have morning snacks.”
“There is a poverty zone, quite large, in each of the eight towns and it is very hidden,” she said. “If our sites sit in those poverty zones they are called open meal sites and all children are welcome.”
The federal government defines a poverty zone as an area where over 50 percent of the homes have an income under the poverty line.
Campbell said the elderly population on the Cape is a major reason why there are poverty areas.
The program which started in late June will run through August 26 this summer.
The Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District handles meals for children in those two towns and the YMCA of Cape Cod runs the food program from Hyannis to the Cape Cod Canal.
To get more information on the Lower and Outer Cape program or to inquire about volunteer opportunities contact Ruth Campbell at [email protected] or by phone at 413-537-9200.
