— Editor’s note: ShareNet was inadvertently left out of the list of Food for Kids sponsors in the print version of this editorial. ShareNet is a major partner of the Food for Kids program and the Kingston Community News apologizes for the editing error.
Of all community issues, few are as alarming as the fact that local children go hungry.
Former North Kitsap School District superintendent Gene Medina remembers seeing children on Monday morning enjoying their first real meal since lunch at school on Friday. That begged the question, “How do children who depend on free and reduced lunches during the school year get the food they need during the summer?”
A program known now as Food for Kids is raising money to help pay for summer school lunches at Wolfle Elementary School and provide food packets for students when summer school ends — a seven-week period between the end of summer school and the beginning of the school year.
Some 60 percent of students at Wolfle now qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to Medina.
That’s up from 53.4 percent in May 2011, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction report card. During the 2005-06 school year, 48.2 percent qualified for free or reduced-price meals, according to the report card.
Districtwide, 33.5 percent of students, or 2,237, in the qualified for free or reduced-price meals in 2011.
“We’re raising $5,950 that will basically help us deliver two packets a week for seven weeks, and cover the gap in funding for summer school lunches,” he said. Medina said 110 children are expected for summer school.
Last year, Food for Kids provided food packets for seven weeks for 50-60 children. “This year, we’re projecting 75,” Medina said.
There are a lot of partners in summer school and Food for Kids: ShareNet, Port Gamble S’Klallam’s Early Childhood Education Department, Kingston Food Bank, Kingston Rescue Mission. And, of course, donors in the community.
No child in our community should go hungry. Send donations to Kingston-North Kitsap Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 832, Kingston, WA 98346.
