By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
This summer, 1,000 Beaufort County children — many, perhaps most of them, needy — are being fed each week through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program.
Four food-service sites are operating in the county, meeting the nutritional needs of children and teens ages 1 to 18 in Aurora, Belhaven and Washington, said the Rev. David Moore, pastor of Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Washington.
“What we wanted to do is to feed as many as we could, and we wanted to try and put together a collaborative where we could try and include other churches within the county,” said Moore, who is helping to usher the program along.
Locally, the program is either run by faith-based entities or people affiliated with church initiatives, said Phedora Johnson, who was hired to oversee two of the sites.
“I believe very strongly in community activism, and this is just one of the things that I’ve chosen to do,” she said.
More than 300 meals — breakfast and lunch — are prepared every day, Mondays through Fridays, to feed local young people who might not have access to proper meals, according to Moore and Johnson.
Bill Booth, who is involved with a feeding site, said he’s working out kinks in his share of the program, though children are being fed at the site.
Booth said organizers want to build on the program by adding an after-school component during the school year, and he hoped to share more news about that aspect of the effort later on this year.
“This is something that has been needed for quite a while,” he said.
The Summer Food Service Program is designed to bridge the warm-season gap between dietary requirements met by schools during the school year and the hunger gulf arising during the out-of-school months, the USDA’s Web site reads.
“States approve SFSP meal sites as open, enrolled or camp sites,” the Web site reads. “Open sites operate in low-income areas where at least half of the children come from families with incomes at or below 185 percent of the Federal poverty level, making them eligible for free and reduced-price school meals. Meals are served free to any child at the open site.”
The Web site notes that, “Meals and snacks are also available to persons with disabilities, over age 18, who participate in school programs for people who are mentally or physically disabled.”
Cynthia Ervin, the program’s coordinator for North Carolina, said she had no hard and fast figures on the number of people served by the program this summer.
“I can tell you we have definitely grown this year over last year,” Ervin said of demand.
Sponsors are still filing reimbursement claims for meals served in June, Ervin pointed out.
The USDA sets reimbursement rates for the feeding sites, the Web site indicates.
It’s estimated that around 800,000 Tarheel State children have problem hunger needs, related Johnson.
“I think this (program) just simply meets a need, and it’s a growing need, which is why there were already programs in place before ours to feed children,” she commented. “But since it is a growing need, we certainly … wanted to get started this summer and not delay.”
Speaking of the call for good, solid meals for youths, Moore said, “There are a lot of poor people, and with the downturn in the economy, it really is a challenge.”
For more information on the program, call Jonathan Moore at 919-564-9018.