Poor students go hungry in summer

Third in an occasional series on the National School Lunch Program in Greater Cincinnati. Read the first story here and the second story here. 

VILLAGES AT ROLL HILL — Angela Green sits on her porch, watching her two great-grandchildren play on the lawn. To her left, 8-month-old Elijah sits in a stroller observing his great grandmother.

It's a hot June afternoon: 86 degrees, with 60 percent humidity.

It's a normal day for Green, who helps support her 27-year-old grandson and an 8-year-old great-grandson. During the day, she also babysits two other great-grandchildren.

"It would probably be hard work for someone else," she explains. "But it's natural for me."

One of the services that helps Green is a nonprofit organization called Childhood Food Solutions. Volunteers with the organization pull into her community once or twice a month, providing families with children a sack of filling, nonperishable foods that last roughly two weeks.

It's a good service for Green, who lives in subsidized housing and survives off Social Security.

"I don't have the means, with a fixed income, to buy those things," she said. "Plus, these are all things that the kids like."

In the 2015-16 school year, there were more than 155,000 students in Greater Cincinnati on the National School Lunch Program, according to an Enquirer analysis of state data. The program serves nutritious meals to students living in or on the brink of poverty.

'This is a crisis': Suburban poverty growing, school lunch data shows

During summer vacation, those students are fed through a collaborative network of services provided by schools, libraries, individual volunteers and nonprofit organizations like Childhood Food Solutions.

But still, despite good intentions, many go hungry.

"Kids are out of school and they are coming home to empty pantries and cupboards," said Kurt Reiber, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank. "Hunger doesn't take a summer vacation."

For example:

• The Freestore Foodbank estimates that fewer than one in 10 students who receives a free or reduced-price lunch during the school year participates in any type of summer feeding program. (Nationally, fewer than one in six students participates in the Summer Food Service Program, according to a report from the Food Research & Action Center.)
• During the school year, Cincinnati Public Schools serves roughly 50,000 meals a day. During the summer, the district serves roughly 5,000 meals a day. 
• Last summer, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County served roughly 15,000 lunches.
• Last summer, Childhood Food Solutions delivered roughly 6,000 sacks of food. So far this year, the organization has distributed roughly 3,300 sacks. 

Critics of the school lunch program say it's a program enveloped in bureaucratic red tape. It's also not the jobs of schools to feed the region's poor children, they say.

However, advocates for the program say it's important to feed our region's kids, guaranteeing their physical and academic growth. Those are the means necessary to push families out of poverty, they say.

"Lack of food is a basis for so many problems," said Tony Fairhead, executive director of Childhood Food Solutions.

Pharmacist turned philanthropist 

It's a hot, humid afternoon in late June, and Fairhead slowly drives a moving-and-storage truck through the Villages at Roll Hill.

In the back, four volunteers sit on the bed of the truck, surrounded by row upon row of sacks filled to the brim with food.

Each sack contains what Fairhead calls "filling food," items like graham crackers, granola bars, mac & cheese, ramen noodles and fruit snacks. The sacks aren't made to be nutritious, per say – simply to provide children enough calories to feel full. Each bag contains roughly 40 meals.

As Fairhead pulls into an apartment complex, he begins honking his horn. Beep beep. Beep beep beep beep. It's like the ice cream truck, but without the music.

As Fairhead continues honking, children, mothers and fathers begin trickling out of their homes.

Most know the drill. They approach the volunteers in the back of the truck and tell them how many children live in their home. Volunteers give out a bag per child.

One child picks up a bag, grabs the fruit snacks and rides off on his bike, leaving the sack unattended on the grass. However, most seem to appreciate the service.

"Thank you so much," they respond. "Have a good day," others say.

Fairhead and his volunteers continue driving around the neighborhood for three more hours. There's the little girl who runs after her friend toward the truck. "I want one, too," she yells. Another little girl who grabs a box of nutrition bars out of the sack and holds it in the air.

By the end of the day, Fairhead and volunteers delivered roughly 800 sacks of food.

Fairhead, who has long, wispy gray hair that falls into his face, hasn't always been involved in philanthropy work. He grew up in England and worked as a pharmacist before he moved stateside in the 1970s.

Once he moved to the United States, he began working at a Macy's call center after having difficulties renewing his pharmacy license.

It was an eye-opening experience for Fairhead. He became good friends with his colleagues, one of whom was a single mother who didn't have a reliable car. She often struggled with not being eligible to take time off work.

"That time was really important to me," he said. "It showed me how the other half lived. I realized I had lived a very privileged life working for a big drug company."

Fairhead had been involved with various international volunteer projects, but he decided he wanted to do something locally.

In 2005, he met with local leaders in North Fairmount and Millvale, and they set out on a mission: End childhood hunger in one ZIP code.

"It was a lot harder than we expected," Fairhead said, laughing.

Childhood Food Solutions has a specific purpose. The organization solely provides sacks of food in the 45225 ZIP code late in the month, when families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, have likely run out of benefits. It also provides sacks of food when students are out of school in June, July and December.

Sometimes the nonprofit distributes food directly in the neighborhoods. Other times it relies on schools to distribute the food.

When there's leftover money, Childhood Food Solutions provides sacks to surrounding schools, such as Oyler Elementary School in Lower Price Hill or Rees E. Price Elementary School in East Price Hill.

Of course, it's a technique that receives some criticism. A handful of people ask Fairhead why he doesn't focus on helping families better allocate their food stamp benefits over the course of a whole month, instead of providing food during those gaps.

"We tried that," Fairhead said. "But there was no evidence that concept worked."

Fairhead said the current model works. Between 2007 and 2014, preterm birth rates have decreased 38 percent in the 45225 ZIP code, according to a report filed by Childhood Food Solutions with Guidestar, an organization that collects nonprofit tax forms. During the same time period, the infant mortality rate in the ZIP code has decreased 32 percent.

Additionally, reading and math scores have improved in the area.

Fairhead recognizes that a number of factors could affect those numbers and that there is a large amount of turnover in low-income neighborhoods, making progress hard to track.

However, he still credits the success to Childhood Food Solutions. When families are living in food insecurity, mothers often cut back on their own meals to make sure their children are fed, resulting in preterm and low-weight babies, Fairhead said.

Providing sacks of food guarantees that doesn't happen.

"Our experience shows that it is impossible to increase food security for children without also providing food for adult family members, especially mothers, because children share their food," Fairhead said. "Childhood Food Solutions policy is to provide enough food to allow this; otherwise, children go short."

A plethora of services

There are a number of other services in Greater Cincinnati that aim to provide food for children during the summer months.

Cincinnati Public Schools provide meals to all students – not just those living in poverty – at some local schools and community sites, such as recreation centers and libraries.

The schools are reimbursed for all meals through the national Summer Food Service Program, which is offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

What is CPS doing to combat poverty?

Jessica Shelly, director of food services at Cincinnati Public Schools, said summer feeding helps alleviate the burden of living in poverty for many families.

"We hear stories of families making tough trade-offs," she said. "Do they choose between food and utilities? Do they choose between medical bills and food? The goal is to make sure our meals are helping fill that gap."

The benefits are two-fold, Shelly said. Students are also participating in engaging, educational activities.

"You are keeping kids ready for school in the fall," she said. "They are active members of our community. It gives us a better future economic security when we have kids ready to go to school, instead of being so hungry they slide backward."

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County also provides meals at 15 sites through a partnership with Cincinnati Public Schools and Whole Again International.

Lisa Soper, the library's coordinator of youth services and programming, said providing meals through the system is important because it serves a need outside Cincinnati.

An Enquirer special report found participation in the school lunch program between 2005 and 2015 increased dramatically in the suburbs, including 124 percent in Butler County and 99 percent in Warren County.

"Poverty is expanding outside the urban core," Soper said. "It's very obvious families need something like this. They come into after school and they are hungry. They just don't know where their next meal is coming from."

Kurt Reiber, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank, said demand for services at the network's 250 food pantries also increases during the summer.

"When the summer months come around, you see a bit of an upsurge," he said. "We've increased our food distribution from 17.5 million meals to around 23 million meals."

Barriers to assistance

Despite the plethora of food services provided locally, food providers recognize that many children go unfed during the summer months.

There are a number of reasons for that gap in service, they say.

At Cincinnati Public Schools, the district only provides meals at school sites during the month of June, when there is summer school. Many of those students are left without a meal during the month of July and the first part of August.

Additionally, CPS' Shelly said many families aren't able to get their child to a school or community site because they don't have reliable transportation.

Others may fear to send their kids out for heat or safety reasons, she said.

For example, the community center at the Villages at Roll Hill provides a daily lunch to children during the summer. On the day Childhood Food Solutions was distributing sacks of food, only 50 students attended the center's lunches. In comparison, Childhood Food Solutions delivered roughly 800 sacks of food.

"Food Solutions is great and we complement each other so well," said Shelly. "It's important to find those people who can complement what you're doing."

Shelly said she would like to distribute food in the community, the way Fairhead does, but she isn't allowed to under federal law.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has introduced legislation that aims to expand the Summer Food Service Program and ensure it reaches more children, including children in the suburbs.

The bill also would allow schools to provide meals to-go, or to distribute food in a mobile van.

Why do advocates want these provisions? "We can come down the street like an ice cream truck. Children are staying safe and they are staying near their home," Shelly said.

"If I have my way, I'll have a fleet of buses," she said.

A dedication to keep going

Fairhead said there are a number of barriers his group faces.

Of course, there's money.

In 2014, the organization received $143,523 in contributions, according to the organization's 990 tax return. It spent all of that money – plus an additional $400 – on "distributing food to underprivileged children" in Cincinnati Public Schools.

Fairhead also said it's hard to collaborate with other local organizations. Childhood Food Solutions targets a small, specific population, so other food providers aren't interested in collaborating, he said.

But most of all, Fairhead said his biggest barrier is a lack of understanding.

"People don’t truly believe that families completely run out of food," he said. "There’s always this kind of feeling that if a family can come to the food pantry and get three days of food, they will be OK."

Fairhead said that isn't the case, and he has several stories to prove it.

Recently, one of his colleagues asked a young boy what it would be like if his home always had food. The boy began weeping.

Or there was the "thank you" card Childhood Food Solutions received from a young girl who said she shared her sack of food with her cousins.

"My cousins never smile," the little girl wrote. "But when we shared our food, they smiled."

That is Fairhead's motivation to keep fundraising, keep packing, keep distributing.

"I feel like I've got to do something to have a better outcome," he said.

Need a meal?

• Find a meal through Cincinnati Public Schools here. 
• Find a meal through the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County here. 
• Find a food pantry through the Freestore Foodbank here.

Want to get involved?  

Tony Fairhead said mid and late July is one of the worst months for families because summer school is not in session and food stamps have run out. Here are ways to get involved:

• Jessica Shelly of Cincinnati Public Schools suggests contacting senators and encouraging them to vote for Sen. Sherrod Brown's Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act. 
• Kurt Reiber of the Freestore Foodbank suggests donating food or volunteering at your local food bank. 
• Or find out more about Childhood Food Solutions here.