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By Joseph A. Curtatone

One in three low-income households reports not having enough food when children are home over the summer, and two out of three have to make tough choices between buying food and covering other important expenses like utilities or medical bills. While those are national statistics we know that there are families in Somerville having to make those same choices. This shouldn’t be the case and, as a community, we need to work together to address childhood hunger.

The Somerville Public Schools provides free lunches and breakfasts to any student who qualifies for free or reduced lunch, which covers up to ten meals a week for students. But during the summer, weekends, and other school breaks students may not have access to those meals and providing them could be beyond their families’ budgets. Out of our 5,000 students, we know around 60% qualify for free and reduced lunch and may not be getting as many meals outside of school.

I don’t think any of us need studies to know that childhood hunger is a problem, but the research shows that it can have long-term effects on students’ education and health.

Hungry students don’t perform as well as their peers at school and often need more help recovering from “summer learning loss.” Studies have found that students dealing with food insecurity come into the new school year two months behind their peers in reading. Over time, that adds up and by fifth grade those students could be three grade levels behind. Part of making sure that our students are getting a good education includes making sure they’re not hungry and able to focus on learning.

Young people dealing with food insecurity are also more likely to have physical and mental health issues that can keep them out of school and put a strain on families’ already tight budgets. Children experiencing hunger also recover from illnesses more slowly and are hospitalized more than those with access to enough food. They are also more likely to have behavioral problems and anxiety.

We want to set our students up for success, which means making sure they have access to nutritious meals both in and out of school. This July, the Somerville Public School’s Food and Nutrition Services Department served just under 1,900 free meals a day to kids across Somerville. The Summer Meals Program, which serves free breakfasts and lunches at sites around the city in July and August, is one of a growing number of strategies the City and Schools is using to make sure all young people in Somerville have year round access to healthy meals.

We know we’re not reaching every child who needs help, which is why we are always looking at ways to make sure our young people have enough to eat. Nutritional Services staff reviews the locations where the Summer Meals Program serves breakfasts and lunches and tries to identify where kids are most likely to be. They also coordinate with Recreation and other school programs to make sure those students have enough to eat.

Because of its length, summer break is an obvious time when families may need help with food, but there are also students who aren’t getting enough to eat over weekends and shorter breaks during the school year. To help bridge that gap, a group of volunteers partnered with Shape Up Somerville and Cambridge Health Alliance to start the Backpack Program in 2014. The program was recently taken over by the non-profit group Food for Free and sends home two breakfasts and lunches with each participating pre-k through eighth grade student for the weekends. Participation varies, but the program has served up to 325 students in a week.

Earlier this year, Shape Up Somerville and the Somerville Food Security Coalition released the Somerville Food Plan, which includes recommendations for increasing food access based on findings in last year’s Community Food System Assessment. The plan includes suggestions for how the City, schools, and the community can work together to make sure students have access to food outside of school. Suggestions include getting more students into afterschool programs where they can get meals, expanding the Summer Meals program to include dinner, and identifying funding that can help with these efforts. We’ll be reviewing all these ideas, as well as continuing to look for new ways to make sure all of our students are getting enough to eat every day.

Unfortunately, child hunger is a subset of a much larger hunger problem. If you or someone you know is struggling with hunger, please visit the Somerville Food Security Coalition website at www.somervillefoodsecurity.org. The website includes lists of resources, community meals, and food pantries.