September is Hunger Awareness Month. As a part of this nationwide effort to draw attention to the issue of hunger in America, Nebraska Appleseed is releasing a report tomorrow entitled “Ending Childhood Hunger in Nebraska: Strategies for Improving and Maximizing Child Nutrition Programs.â€
The report shares the unsettling finding that one in seven children in Nebraska is food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. At the same time, federal child nutrition programs, such as the School Breakfast Program and the Summer Food Service Program are underutilized in our state. We serve only about a third (36.9%) of low-income children through the School Breakfast Program and less than one in ten (9.3%) low-income children through the Summer Food Service Program.
While schools and nonprofits do work hard to use federal child nutrition programs to serve hungry kids, we can do more as a state and as a nation. That is particularly true this year, because child nutrition programs will be reauthorized at the federal level in the coming months.
To learn more about child hunger in Nebraska, and about what can be done to improve child nutrition programs, check out our Food and Nutrition page http://neappleseed.org/food/ or click here to access a copy of our report – and stay tuned for more information about how you can be involved in fighting childhood hunger in Nebraska!