Cindy’s List of Barriers from New Mexico
Posted by Katherine Van Steenburgh on Thursday, July 7, 2011
Editor’s Note: All summer, Share Our Strength staff will be visiting summer meals sites across the country to show our work in action. This post is part of that series. To learn more about Summer Meals, visit strength.org/summer.
Last week, the Share Our Strength Summer Meals Road Trip stopped in New Mexico to visit summer meals sites that we support. It was a powerful and eye-opening trip. Meghann, the No Kid Hungry Campaign Manager in New Mexico, was our guide and we visited 7 places over the course of two days. Our team will be sharing stories and photos from this trip over the next few days, but first I wanted to share a part of the trip that captures the challenges facing New Mexico.
No Kid Hungry New Mexico is focusing on increasing the number of summer meal sites and the number of kids participating in summer meals at existing sites throughout the state. As in any state, there are challenges to doing this, barriers, things that get in the way. Over the three days, we met many hunger heroes who have dedicated their lives to fighting hunger and poverty in New Mexico. I want to introduce you to one of them and share her perspective on the barriers to feeding kids in New Mexico.
Meet Cindy: Cindy is a hunger hero with a huge heart, unstoppable determination, and gusto. In Moriarty, New Mexico (a town that is made up of dusty, dry fields and trailer park communities), Cindy leads the school’s nutrition program and makes sure that the children in this low-income, rural community have lunch in the summertime and a healthy breakfast during the school year. After visiting a site in Moriarty with Cindy, we grabbed lunch together to gather her unique perspective on summer meals in New Mexico. Cindy gave us her list of barriers to feeding kids in New Mexico during the summer:
Transportation: As in many locations in the United States, transportation is the main barrier to feeding more kids. In New Mexico, much of the state is rural, so kids either need to be picked up and driven to the lunch site or the food needs to be driven far distances into the small communities where the kids live. Most people don’t think about transportation when they think about summer lunch, but this is the NUMBER 1 barrier that we hear keeps kids from receiving lunch during the summer.
“The elements”: This isn’t the case in every state, but in New Mexico, weather is actually a significant factor. The heat, the wind, the dust all make it very difficult to serve meals outside. This year, one site was able to purchase an umbrella with the mini-grant funding in order to provide shade for the kids while they ate lunch. Is there an “element” barrier in your community? What would be a relatively inexpensive solution?
Stigma: This is a common barrier across the United States. Many families and kids feel ashamed that they need help, and that keeps them from accessing free summer meals.
Education and outreach- There is still a great need to get the word out to the community about the programs. Please make sure your community knows about summer meals.
This summer Share Our Strength took steps to fight many of these barriers. We provided mini-grants to help sites with transportation and provide protection from the sun, rain, and dust. The promotional materials printed by Share Our Strength helped get the word out and we working to help sites to eliminate stigmas. Over the next few days, we’ll share examples of how this is playing out in New Mexico.
What barriers exist in your community that makes it hard for kids to access food this summer?
RELATED LINKS:
— Learn more about Share Our Strength’s Summer Meals work
— Help Support Summer Meals Work
July 7, 2011 | 3 comment(s) | Tags: no kid hungry, summer meals
Comments
3 reader comments so far.
I recently founded the "Summer Lunch Box" program in my rural farming community of Susquehanna County, PA. The problem of Transportation and finding enough volunteers to operate during the day would have kept this program from ever getting off the ground. Our approach is to supply the families with bags of groceries (breakfast and lunch foods) every two weeks. To help with the pride issue, we issue the families a number and they just come to pick up for that number, identities are never revealed to our numerous volunteers. We service the school district which includes approx 14 townships in the county. We having shopping volunteers, packing volunteers, and distribution volunteers not to mention the nonstop requests for food and/or monetary donations. To make sure food donations are healthy we supply a sample menu and ask donors to select items from the list.
Posted by Paula on July 7, 2011
It never would have occured to me until now that transportation and weather would be barriers to getting healthy food to needy children. From Share Our Strength I always learn that hunger in America is about far more than poverty, and requires strategies far more sophisiticated than distributing canned food.
This summer, please join my family in supporting permanent solutions to childhood hunger in our country. If you give a dollar -- we will, too. Let's make it possible for Share Our Strength to get meals to more of America's hungry children this summer.
Posted by Karen Keating Ansara on July 7, 2011
Many thanks to Meghann, Susan, Alice, Lindsay, and Katherine who came to visit us here in Moriarty. It is THEIR passion, vision, and commitment to getting the word out regarding the hungry children in the US that is making all the difference in the world. As a point of reference, Hilda Candelaria is the Director of Student Nutrition for the school district. It is through her vision and foresight that the district received the grant to purchase the table and umbrella for the remote location in one of our local communities. Hilda is the real leader for Student Nutrition here - I am fortunate to be able to work with her! Thank you, everyone, for your caring words and time spent with our students.
Posted by Cindy on July 11, 2011
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