For Immediate Release    
Contacts:
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Dina Piran: (617) 239-2524
      
Email: Dina_Piran@projectbread.org      
March 23, 2007
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salem's Elected Officials and Project Bread

Convene Salem Summer Food Summit

Mayor Kimberley Driscoll, Senator Frederick E. Berry and Representative John D. Keenan

launch plan to increase the number of children eating summer meals in Salem

 

 

EAST BOSTON – March 20, 2007 – Mayor Kimberley Driscoll, Senator Frederick E. Berry, Representative John D. Keenan and Project Bread convened a broad coalition of community leaders in a meeting at Salem City Hall today to discuss plans to increase the number of children eating summer meals in Salem.

 

The summit kicked off a larger, comprehensive local campaign to increase participation in the federal nutrition programs, such as the summer meals program, to make sure no child in Salem goes to bed hungry.  The goal of the meeting was to identify ways to increase the number of Salem children eating meals in the summer when school is out and to implement the ideas throughout the community for the coming summer.  When children receive adequate nutrition in the summer months, they return to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn. 

 

“I’d like to commend Project Bread for all of their work to feed children across the Commonwealth,” said Mayor Driscoll.  “I also would like to thank Project Bread for their work in Salem to increase the availability of free lunches during the summer months.”

 

“Too many of our children do not know where their next meal will come from when they are not in school,” said Senator Berry.  “Thanks to Project Bread, this does not have to be the case.  Our goal is to increase participation in existing nutritional programs so that all eligible children have access to healthy foods.”

 

“The summer food service program is a terrific program, but we need to do more to ensure that not a single Salem child goes hungry while school is out,” said Representative Keenan.  “We need to make the program sites accessible and be sure they have the support they need to meet the demand of nearly 2,000 Salem children who are eligible for government-sponsored meals programs.  Between 2003 and 2006, the prevalence of hunger in Massachusetts’ low-income households increased by eight percent and we know that children feel the pains and pangs of hunger most intensely.  Working together, we can increase awareness of and access to this important program in our own community.”

 

Forty percent of Salem children are eligible for free and reduced-price meals.  In a low-income neighborhood in Salem, one child in three lives in a family unable to meet its basic need for food, and the prevalence of hunger can be nearly 6 times greater than the statewide average.  Despite these facts, many families are not using the federal nutrition programs for which they are eligible.  As a long-term strategy, Project Bread strongly advocates the use of federal nutrition programs, such as summer meals programs, school meals, after-school snack programs and food stamps, to help hungry children get the healthy meals they need to grow and learn.

 

“To eliminate child hunger, we have to think beyond emergency food,” said Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread, which supports 400 emergency food programs throughout the state.  “The best way to address child hunger is to feed children where they live, learn, and play; that is, at home, at school, and in summer and after-school programs.  When a hungry child eats a free meal in a summer program, he is better equipped to return to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn.  He also puts money back into the family’s budget for other meals.”

 

Four years ago, as a response to the crisis of child hunger across the state, Project Bread developed the Massachusetts Child Hunger Initiative (MCHI), which works closely with the leadership in the cities and towns hit hardest by hunger across Massachusetts. As part of its work in Salem, Project Bread is making grants available to local leaders willing to expand the number of sites in the city where children can receive free meals in the summer.  Project Bread also makes grants available to schools that increase participation in school breakfast and improve the nutritional quality of their meals.

 

“We are putting thought as well as financial resources into Salem to help the city’s leadership make the smartest use of all the help out there for feeding kids,” said Ellen Parker.

 

About Project Bread

As the state’s leading antihunger organization, Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. Through The Walk for Hunger, the oldest continual pledge walk in the country, Project Bread provides millions of dollars each year in privately donated funds to 400 emergency food programs in 135 communities statewide. Project Bread also advocates systematic solutions that prevent hunger in children and that provide food to families in natural, everyday settings. Over the past four years, with the support from the Massachusetts Vitamins Litigation Settlement, MSG/Nucleotides Settlement, State Street Foundation, The Boston Foundation, and others, the organization has provided over $2 million in hunger prevention grants to community organizations that feed children where they live, learn, and play. For more information, visit www.projectbread.org.