BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – In the new year, the Louisiana Department of Education and Department of Agriculture and Forestry (DOAF) are gearing up for summer. Your mission is to ensure that no child goes hungry.
“Without this program, many children will go hungry, and that’s the bottom line,” said Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain.
Strain said now is the time to pull together and line up sponsors for her 2022 summer nutrition program.
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“It’s so important to start early so that we don’t have a gap and a period of weeks to a month or more where these kids don’t have access to lunch,” Strain said.
Sponsors are necessary to help with the cost of sourcing, preparing and serving food.
“School systems play a role and if schools choose not to, other government agencies in the community can do so. If they choose not to, the private non-profit organizations can do it,” he explained.
The Louisiana Department of Education said in a press release:
“Sponsors must be able to provide capable staff, managerial skills and catering capacity. A sponsor may provide their own meals, purchase meals through an agreement with a local school, or contract meals with a grocer.”
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Nearly 500,000 students across the state depend on daily meals, but when school is out, meals are unavailable. Strain’s department manages food storage and distribution.
“Working with the USDA, the Department of Education and the school boards, we are all working together to make this program work,” he explained.
The need is even greater as COVID-19 and inflation plague the nation.
“We have the highest inflation across the board in 40 years. We believe this will put a heavy strain on the family budget,” he said.
Students under the age of 18 are entitled to meals. Applications for those wishing to participate in the 2022 Summer Food Service program will be accepted until April 15th.
