These Bucks County districts fed hundreds of kids this summer. The need 'is not going away'

It was a Tuesday morning at Samuel K. Faust Elementary School in Bensalem.

Lourdes Millan, the head cook at Faust of 12 years, arrived at the school at 6:45 a.m., like she does every day.

She prepared pancakes for breakfast, and eight ham and cheese sandwiches, a side of blueberries and whipped cream, and a pickle for lunch.

From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. she waited patiently for kids and families to show up for lunch, but the cafeteria remained empty the entire time. The day before, Millan said, no one showed up for breakfast, and 13 kids came for lunch.

Despite the recent slowdown, Bensalem has served thousands of meals to children this summer as part of the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded, state-administered food nutrition program designed to ensure "all children can eat healthy during the summer months."

With prices rising and pandemic-related pressures continuing to exist for many families in Bucks County, the need remains strong to provide nutritious, free or low-cost meals to children who may otherwise go without, school leaders say.

“Being able to feed our children is really very important,” said Polly Welch, food service coordinator for the Bensalem School District. “There are some families who are struggling so much.”

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Inside Bensalem's summer meals program

Bensalem School District's summer meals program ran from June 20 until Aug. 11, and was open to all kids 18 years and younger, without the need to apply. Free breakfast and lunch were available at 21 different locations, as well as an Owls on the Go Summer Lunch Bus, for those without transportation.

In July, the district served 4,865 breakfasts, 6,156 lunches and 2,073 snacks.

This year's program lacked a grab-and-go component, which district officials said impacted participation. Kids were required to sit and eat meals at the locations in which they were served, due to changes in program rules.

Welch said compared to last year, the numbers weren't as high because the meals weren't as convenient for families and for her, it was disappointing to see.

“There's a need out there and that need is not going away," she said.

Bensalem has participated in a summer meals program for the past nine years. Welch said the district qualifies for the program since 58% of its students applied for food waiver applications or are directly certified, a state-conducted process that allows children to receive free school meals without a household application.

Welch said the district is looking into participating in the Community Eligibility Provision, which would allow the district to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students, with no household applications necessary during the school year.

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“Nobody wants to see a student go hungry or thirsty,” said Denise Hall, head cook of Bensalem High School for 23 years. “I’ll take care of you. All you have to do is ask.”

What other school districts served free meals over the summer?

In addition to Bensalem, the Centennial, Quakertown Community and Souderton Area school districts are provided free meals to students this summer. Other districts that held summer meals programs during the pandemic had stopped because they no longer qualified due to the pandemic-era meal waivers expiring.

For its fifth year in a row, Centennial School District hosted its summer meals program, serving a total of 3,592 breakfasts and 8,076 lunches for the month of July.

“Sometimes kids don’t eat if we’re not here,” said Superintendent Dana T. Bedden. “It really is a problem.”

Bedden said those numbers are on par with the meals served pre-pandemic in 2019.

So far, Bedden said some issues the school district has run into have been dealing with the impact of supply chain demands and the shortage of food service workers.

Currently, 40.5% to 41% of the district qualifies for free and reduced meals, but Bedden said he believes there’s a higher need that isn’t being captured because forms aren’t being filled out.

“I know there are kids out there who need it,” said Bedden. “We've got to try and do the best we can to encourage people to take advantage of it.”

Having been on the free and reduced meal program himself, Bedden said there’s a lot of stigma that accompanies it.

“We're trying to make sure that there's no difference. We're also trying to make sure that we remove any discomfort with regards to how people feel knowing that they need support,” said Bedden. “At the end of the day, if you’re hungry you can't learn at your best.”

With increased costs in food and supplies, Bedden said there are more people struggling right now but the need has always been great and is already there.

St. Luke’s University Network hosted its fourth consecutive Summer Meals Program in Allentown and Quakertown, starting June 20 and ending Aug. 26.

The program, which began in 2019 in response to results from a Community Health Needs Assessment report, is open site, meaning there’s no application or documentation necessary and everyone is welcome, according to Network Director Kathy Ramson.

Ramson said St. Luke’s looks at Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) households, or those that earn more than the federal poverty level, but less than the basic cost of living.

In Upper Bucks, 24% of households were considered ALICE but in Quakertown Borough, 38% of households met ALICE criteria.

“We're helping to fill a gap because if you don't have food, there's just so many other repercussions,” said Ramson.

Between 122 and 238 kids have been served on a given week at Upper Bucks, with a total of 1,103 meals served as of earlier this month.

“It's not just about the food,” said Ramson. “It's about additional things … I think if we can connect with kids early, and actually connect with the families, then we're able to really be that trusted resource for them for other things.”

A deeper look into food insecurity

In 2020, 12% of Americans experienced food insecurity. When looking at Philadelphia, those numbers rose to 15.8%.

Last year, 1.8 million Pennsylvanians were enrolled in SNAP benefits, with 470,000 of those individuals living in Philadelphia, according to Alison Volz, community educator for The Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, an organization that “connects people with food assistance programs and nutrition education; provides resources to a network of food pantries; and educates the public and policymakers about responsible solutions that prevent people from going hungry.”

Founded in 1996, the organization “strives to build a community where all people have the food they need to lead healthy lives.”

With school-aged children spending the majority of their day and of their adolescence in the schools, those meals potentially are the first and sometimes last meal they get a day, according to Volz, making school meal programs “an invaluable resource for the community.”

“There's not a single district or community that is fully free from food insecurity, regardless of how affluent the community is,” Volz said.

With the Universal School Meals Program Act, that ensured all kids had free lunch during the school year, coming to an end, Volz said without pandemic-era waivers, she anticipates a decrease in access to the programs, depending on the school district itself.

“There's so many people who need help and need this assistance, but it's not an option for them,” Volz said.

Because food insecurity is so complex, Volz said there are many issues that impact it including poverty, people not being able to afford groceries, location, food deserts, language barriers when it comes to food packaging, and larger issues of systemic racism and structural inequalities.

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While there isn’t an easy solution, Volz said the biggest factors that can affect food insecurity are employers paying living wages to their employees and providing them with benefits as the cost of living rises.

“This is a large issue. It's a very important issue, but I do not want people to read about all the factors that go into this issue and think it's too big to overcome,” Volz said.

“There definitely is hope. There are plenty of people and organizations who are constantly working on creating better change in our country and focusing on combating food insecurity. So if people want to get involved, they're not alone.”

Around this time last year, Millan said she was serving around 100 to 200 grab-and-go meals a day and sometimes as many as 300 breakfasts per day, depending on the menu.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County schools provided thousands of free meals this summer