While visiting kids at Grand Rapids’ Boys & Girls Club Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow announced how she helped secure funding for summer meal programs for children throughout Michigan and across the country.
“The challenge actually for our country is that we have more than 44 million people who struggle with hunger every day. A million and a half are Michiganders and 1 out of 6 kids in Michigan struggle with where they’re going to have their next meal.”
This funding intends to bridge the summer hunger gap by providing meals for an estimated 900,000 students in Michigan and 21 million nationwide.
“Michigan is one of only 8 states so far that has made it a priority to extend what we did during the pandemic for universal free meals for every child in school.”
Under this new initiative, funding has been expanded permanently every summer for all children through three types of summer meal programs:
Traditional summer meals, where free meals are eaten on-site at schools or day care facilities.
Rural meals to-go, where a meal or multiple meals can be picked up or delivered to families living in rural areas.
And summer EBT, a benefit for families participating in assistance programs like SNAP that provides $120 per child every summer to buy food when school is out.
You can find out more about these new programs by calling 2-1-1 or texting “Food” to 304304.
