Georgia Summer Feeding Program Fights Kiddie Hunger

GRANT PARK — Georgia is blessed to be a resource-rich state.

A major food producer of a variety of crops ranging from poultry to peaches to its signature Vidalia onions, agricultural output amounts to $71 billion a year to the Peach State’s economy.

Yet one in four Georgia kids will go wanting for food this summer.

That explains the Georgia Summer Feeding kick-off program Tuesday at the Grant Park Recreational Center.

More than 100 kids were at the center, having spent the early part of the morning playing with some special VIPs, including Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders and Freddie Falcon, before breaking for lunch.

The initiative, a joint effort of the Georgia Food Bank Association, Arby’s Foundation and other groups, aims to give kids across the state a healthy, filling and balanced meal each day during the summer.

It is part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Summer Feeding Program, which is designed to give hungry kids access to at least one meal during the day during the summer break.

Nationally, one in five children in the United States — the wealthiest nation in the history of the Earth — will face the threat of hunger, according to a Share Our Strength, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to ending child hunger.

During the school year it’s not so much of an issue because existing programs give needy kids lunches.

“Those kids depend on free and reduced lunch during the school year, then they have nothing during the summertime,” Danah Craft, executive director of the Georgia Food Bank Association, told East Atlanta Patch at the recreational center kick-off rally.

The program is free to participants. All a parent or guardian has to do is text the word "FoodGA" to 877-877 and enter your address when prompted. The system will send information on the three-closest feeding site locations to you of the more than 2,500 sites across the state. You also may call 2-1-1, United Way's helpline for site locations.