In Durham and across North Carolina, as school years finish up, people are working to ensure students won’t go hungry over summer break.
Durham Public Schools Summer Meal Program plans to serve between 1,500 and 1,800 students per day, according to Linden Thayer, Durham Public Schools school nutrition planner. The DPS Summer Meals Program will run from June 17 to July 26 across roughly 30 sites, in community locations and schools, Thayer says.
The summer meals program is federally funded and has operated in Durham for more than 30 years. The meals are available for all students, regardless of income, who are 18 years old or younger.
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There are also other federal meal programs throughout the state aimed at helping the portion of the 1.5 million students in NC public schools who may need summer meals, Tamara Baker, project and communications director for Carolina Hunger Initiative, says.
Not only in Durham County, the Summer Nutrition Program has 3,000 sites across the state where students can eat meals onsite. Another program offered statewide, which began last summer, is called Meals To Go.
This is helpful for the 82 out of 100 counties in North Carolina that are considered rural, Baker says.
“It’s a huge convenience factor, especially to try to reach rural children in North Carolina,” Baker says. “There’s a lot of rural territory in North Carolina.”