Free Summer Food For Kids, Including Quintette Park Area

June 4, 2014

As the school year ends, classrooms and playgrounds will empty for the summer — but that will leave many Florida children hungry because they rely on free and reduced-cost school meals for breakfast and lunch.

Food banks, non-profits and community groups are trying to pick up the slack, using federal funding to help deliver up to two meals per day to kids who otherwise might go without.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the non-profit Florida Impact are working together on Summer BreakSpot, a program that provides healthy food to kids at local sites.

There is one such site in the North Escambia area…at the Quintette Community Park at 2490 Quintette Lane. Lunch hours are 10:30 until 11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday. For more information on this site or the program, call Dorothy Lewis at (850) 587-5426.

“The need goes up dramatically in the summer,” said Rebecca Brislain, executive director of the Florida Association of Food Banks.

“We know that the need is there, and we hear that from our partner agencies, that they are running out of food because school is out,” said Rachel Mohler, nutrition director at Second Harvest of the Big Bend food bank in Tallahassee.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the non-profit Florida Impact are working together on Summer BreakSpot, a program that provides healthy food to kids at local sites and reconstructed school buses.

Funding for the 2-year-old Summer BreakSpot program comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, funneled through the state agency. Last year, the program served 12 million meals to 300,000 Florida children, and the USDA reimbursed the state $29.5 million for them.

Erin Gillespie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the state and local partners — school districts, non-profits and religious and community groups — are trying to expand the number of locations where kids can get nutritious meals and enrichment activities.

The program has 3,400 locations statewide — typically recreation centers and affordable housing sites — “so that it’s right there where the kids are,” Gillespie said. “A lot of these families don’t have transportation, and they’re not going to drive across town to get a free lunch for the kids.”

The program also targets rural communities, where food worries for children can be common.

To find additional locations in Escambia or Santa Rosa counties:

  • Dial 2-1-1
  • Text “FoodFL” to 877-877
  • Download the “Nutrislice” smartphone app
  • Visit www.SummerFoodFlorida.org

Comments

One Response to “Free Summer Food For Kids, Including Quintette Park Area”

  1. Cassie on June 4th, 2014 8:03 am

    I wish Beulah would do something like this for the children.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News