Organizations work to combat hunger in summer

The town of Chapel Hill slows down in the summer, but organizations fighting hunger do not take a break.

Food insecurity — characterized by not knowing where one’s next meal will come from — can affect people of any age in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, but it is especially apparent in low-income families during the summer months.

Thirty percent of students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools receive free or reduced lunches, according to Liz Cartano, director of child nutrition at CHCCS. She said when school ends, the families of these students experience an average increase of $316 per month in food costs.

Organizations and volunteers in the area are trying to help the families where they can.

Eleven-year-old A.J. Perry and friends who live in the Airport Gardens Apartments in Chapel Hill enjoyed a meal and games at a Friday Fun Day lunch event last week. Before A.J. abandoned his empty food plate to join his friends at the basketball court, he praised the delicious strawberries he had eaten.

The lunches were provided by Cory Greene and Bethany Stauber, volunteers who run the lunch event at the apartment complex. These types of events work to decrease the number of people who suffer from food insecurity.

Through the N.C. Seamless Summer Nutrition Program, CHCCS provides two meals a day for many of the children from low-income families.

Cartano said CHCCS partners with apartment complexes, churches, the Refugee Support Center and local programs like Friday Fun Day to serve almost 1,500 meals a day.

“Without having these summer meal programs in place, the upcoming school year could start with children who have struggled both nutritionally and academically over the summer break,” Cartano said.

She said she believes that through the program, they are giving each child they serve the ability to know what success feels like.

TABLE, an organization that collects food donations and distributes them to hungry children in the area, does not slow down in its efforts during the summer months, said executive director Ashton Tippins.

Tippins said TABLE provides food for many of the other programs, as well as Weekend Meal Backpacks, which are filled with healthy, non-perishable food items.

One of those backpacks went home with A.J. this weekend, providing him and other children at the event with extra nutrition and fresh produce they otherwise would not have had.

But the school system is not the only place where people are struggling with food insecurity.

The Community Kitchen, a ministry of the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, offers three hot meals a day to anyone who needs them. John Dorward, IFC’s executive director, said the organization’s food pantry provides 1,500 bags of groceries to people in need every month.

“That caring spirit from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community is what sustains our agency and makes it possible for us to serve as many people as we do,” Dorward said.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.