OKLAHOMA CITY — Across Oklahoma, food insecurity is one of our most pressing and most persistent issues, a problem only worsened by the effects of inflation on food prices and ongoing staffing shortages for food service and prep workers.
And these problems have become especially concerning for Oklahoma children.
Of the state’s estimated 672,000 food insecure residents, nearly 224,000 are school-aged children, breaking down to 1 in every 4 kids in the state facing hunger and uncertainty about where and how to get their next meal.
School districts and city/state programs provide some safety nets to ensure that students are fed through the school year, but what happens during summer break, when those students may be facing three full months with no food stability?
To help combat this, school districts like Oklahoma City Public Schools and outreach programs led and organized by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma have been leading efforts to provide children with nutritious, sustaining food throughout the summer months.
“Unfortunately, Oklahoma is one of the hungriest states in the nation,” said Cathy Nestlen, Communications Director for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. “Especially during the summer months, we’re just laser-focused on trying to reach as many children as we can.”
OKCPS – School meals through June
Oklahoma City Public Schools will offer free breakfast and lunch meals on weekdays throughout June at school locations across the city to help students transition into the potentially more food-insecure late summer months.
“It’s an extension of the school lunch program, essentially,” said Jeffrey Tamayo, Assistant Director of School Nutrition Services (SNS) with OKCPS. “We have some elementary and high school locations where parents can bring their kids to get a free meal twice a day. Anyone under 18, we provide with a breakfast and a lunch, with the caveat that they have to eat it there on site.”
These rules about on-site, in-person consumption of the meals are a way for the organizers to ensure that the children are getting the food that they need and cut down on unnecessary waste, which is particularly important when funding and availability of foods are always a concern.
In the case of both OKCPS and the Food Bank’s summer feeding programs, much of the funds come from state and federal departments.
“These are programs administered federally by the USDA and locally by the Oklahoma Department of Education,” Tamayo said. “Essentially, we get reimbursement for each meal we serve.”
Government funding helps to cover the food cost, but the bigger issue – and the main factor in OKCPS only being able to provide free summer meals through June – is often gathering and paying staff.
The staff members who work to provide OKCPS’s summer meals in June are all SNS employees who are given the option of working through the month for extra pay. But it’s difficult for the district to know how much staff they’ll need when they can’t be sure how many children will show up each day.
“Definitely one of the biggest challenges we face during summer is staffing,” Tamayo said. “We really have to try to have the minimum staff possible, and then we have extra staff on standby depending on the attendance.”
RFBO – Statewide, volunteer-driven focus on take-home boxes
The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma doesn’t have to worry quite as much about staff pay concerns for their statewide summer feeding services, relying more on community partnerships and a strong volunteer force.
But with their efforts extending from May to August and being focused more heavily on take-home meal boxes and shelf-stable foods, funding is still always a big concern.
“Our service area includes 53 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties,” Nestlen said, “and it’s mostly all funded by the USDA and they have certain important requirements for nutrition and balance. So it’s a lot.”
A major boost to their funding and their ability to feed Oklahoma schoolchildren through the summer came this year with a $250,000 donation from Love’s Travel Stops, allowing them to bolster their summer programs and to expand for the first time into Ellis, Greir, Love, and Harmon counties.
Though the Food Bank does operate some on-site meal services like OKCPS, many of their programs are focused on take-home boxes filled with the makings of up to ten, easily prepared meals, making it possible for children and families to stock up and eat at home.
That’s become especially important this year as the Oklahoma state government has rolled back a pandemic-era program that for four years has provided families with school-aged children with a summer EBT card to help cover groceries.
“We learned that Oklahoma was no longer going to be participating in the summer EBT program in the beginning of the year,” Nestlen said. “So we’ve been planning and working since then to try to make sure that we’re reaching as many families and children as we can.”
That’s meant studying how best to utilize the Love’s donation and pushing for more volunteers for food prep at their headquarters and Hope’s Kitchen site at 3355 S. Purdue Ave. in OKC.
“Volunteers are the lifeblood of our food bank,” said Nestlen. “For anyone that wants to volunteer, we have a great atmosphere, we play great music, and we have a very upbeat staff that’ll make sure you enjoy yourself. And it’s free air conditioning for the summer.”
“What drives our work”
With children’s diets and access to nutritious, consistent food shown to affect everything from test scores, to knowledge retention, and even crime reduction, ensuring that school-aged kids can receive the food they need during the summer months couldn’t be more important.
But that requires Oklahomans to stand up and get involved, whether through funding donations, volunteering, or even just dropping off shelf-stable foods and canned goods whenever possible.
Every little bit helps to make sure our state’s kids are fed.
“Children shouldn’t ever have to worry about food or whether they have enough to eat,” Nestlen said. “That’s what drives our work, especially during the summer.”
To find locations in Oklahoma City where OKCPS provides on-site, prepared meals twice a day throughout June, CLICK HERE.
To find locations where the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is providing take-home meal boxes and on-site meals throughout the summer across their 53-county service area, including Oklahoma County, CLICK HERE.
To learn how to volunteer with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, CLICK HERE.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
