Summer Safety Net

FOOD for Lane County’s child nutrition programs

Summer is the high season for Karen Roth, child nutrition programs manager with FOOD for Lane County.

“We have such a need,” Roth says. “Fifty-three percent of Lane County’s children and youth are eligible for the National School Lunch Program.”

The Cereal for Youth program distributes free, individually sized packages of cereal through CFY partner agencies. Photo: Denise Wendt

For a lot of kids in our communities, summer means going hungry.

“There are many children in the county who depend on the school-year program, deriving up to 75 percent of their daily nutrition from the school based meals,” Roth says. “It’s hard to imagine what it feels like for those kids when school closes for the summer.”

 

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By Rachael Carnes, Eugene Weekly