NEW HAVEN SCHOOL FOOD’s FOOD TRUCK TO PROVIDE FREE SUMMER MEALS FOR KIDS

NEW HAVEN SCHOOL FOOD’s FOOD TRUCK TO PROVIDE FREE SUMMER MEALS FOR KIDS

            Thanks to our partnership with the USDA Seamless Summer Meals Program and the United Way of Greater New Haven, New Haven School Food is going mobile again this summer with its Free Meals Here food truck that will serve kids throughout the city free healthy and nutritious meals this summer.

           New Haven School Food unveiled the truck last summer at a dedication event. Last summer the food truck served over 17,000 meals to the children of New Haven in just 20 days.

            “I want to thank United Way for its continued generosity surrounding our food truck,” Chef Timothy Cipriano said. “Thanks to United Way, we will once again bring great food directly to the kids this summer.

“Hungry Kids and Summer unfortunately go hand in hand. Not ALL children are looking forward to the school year being finished. Despite not having to cram for tests, do homework and the ability to sleep late in the morning, summertime also opens up a severe problem to hungry children; lack of food .Good nutrition is an essential building block for healthy growth and development and educational success. Often, the biggest barrier for kids and teens to participate in the free summer meals program is not being able to get to where they served. Embracing Gov. Malloy’s Connecticut No Kid Hungry Campaign charge - “We’ve got to make this work for everybody. We’re going to make this work in Connecticut.”- United Way and New Haven School Food are tackling the transportation barrier by bringing meals to where kids and teens live.”

The Free Meals Here Food Truck will enable New Haven School Food to deliver three free meals a weekday – up to 1,000 free meals a day – to children living in underserved neighborhoods throughout New Haven.  Federal funds will pay for the program.

New Haven School Food and United Way are partners in the Connecticut No Kid Hungry Campaign, an initiative to end childhood hunger in Connecticut by 2015 led by Gov. Dannel Malloy, End Hunger Connecticut! and Share Our Strength. This is the first food truck of its kind to serve free summer meals to children and teens in Connecticut.

            Almost one in five Connecticut households with children -- 18.7% -- struggle to put food on the table, meaning more than 127,000 children in the state are considered food insecure. More than 75% of New Haven students qualified for free and reduced price school meals in 2011. However, of students enrolled in school meals programs, only one in four received meals last year through the federally-funded Summer Food Service Program.

“Kids and teens do not stop needing healthy meals when school is out,” Cipriano said. “In fact, summer can be one of the toughest times for families who rely on school food programs to make ends meet.”

The truck will be hitting the streets Tuesday July 10^th! We are actively seeking a corporate partner to help us secure additional food trucks to feed more children in New Haven and throughout the State of Connecticut.