One child out of every five goes to bed hungry each night across the nation. In Beaufort County, that number is one in four, according to a study by the Southern University Consortium.

Beaufort County Summer Feeding wants to do something about that. The program is fighting against child hunger by providing free meals to children 18-and-under.

“The purpose of the program is to replace the meals that students received at school during the school year,” said Jason Carrow, executive director of Care-O-World Early Learning Center, the company that sponsors Summer Feeding.

Mondays through Fridays, children have access to free breakfast and lunch at eight open feeding sites throughout Washington and Beaufort County. See www.careoworld.org/sfsp for a full list of feeding sites and serving times.

Teresa Clayton, director of the program, estimates that they will feed between 800 and 1,000 kids every day for lunch. While that may sound like a lot, it is still short of their goal.

Summer Feeding provides meals for less than 10 percent of students enrolled in Beaufort County Schools, Carrow said. “Some counties feed 20 to 25 percent, but we’re still below 10 percent, so we still have some growing to do.”

However, he said the program has steadily increased in size over its nine-year history. Last year, Summer Feeding served 44,000 meals. This year, they are aiming to serve 60,000.

The expected growth is largely due to the help of volunteers like Jim Reed, pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church.
“This program is just something that I’ve kind of taken a hold of and been a strong advocate for,” Reed said. “Loving your neighbors, that’s really what we’re doing.”

Reed and his church spearhead an effort to take food to the children. With the help of volunteers, he sets up mobile feeding sites in certain communities. They use tents and tables to serve food at these sites, so kids don’t have to worry about transportation.

Reed has enlisted what he calls “partners in the gospel,” and now Church of the Good Shepherd and First Christian Church have established feeding sites as well.

“That’s certainly been a big help, having Jim on board,” said Carrow. “He’s certainly bought in to the program.”

As sponsor, Care-O-World bears financial and logistical responsibility of the program, Carrow said. Among other things, it employs staff that prepare and deliver food to the sites.

All of the funding for the program comes from the United States Department of Agriculture. No local or state money is contributed, according to Carrow.

This summer, the food is made at P.S. Jones Middle School, Carrow said. “The schools are a great partner because they’re able to provide a kitchen and a space for us to prepare the food.”

Summer Feeding began June 14 and will continue until Aug. 18.