By Brooke Binkowski
When the school year ends, hunger begins.
Nearly 1 in 4 children in San Diego County rely on school food programs to get a daily meal — higher than the national average. That means that when school is out during the summer they go hungry.
Jennifer Gilmore is executive director of Feeding America San Diego, which collaborates with city and county programs to end food insecurity. She says summer break can create a huge financial burden for families that are struggling already.
“Suddenly you find yourself in the position of needing to provide five additional meals, possibly 10 additional meals, if you have multiple children it can get up to 30 additional meals a week, and that’s a tough one for families to budget for,” Gilmore said.
READ: Fighting the Summer Meal Gap with Food Stamps
The “School’s Out, Hunger’s Not” campaign aims to keep children from having to go hungry for the summer.
“Any kid who is 18 or under can go to the summer food service sites and receive a meal this summer,” Gilmore said.
Summer fun cafe sites begin serving lunch on June 19.
[Disclosure: Feeding America is an underwriter of KPBS.]