CLEVELAND — The Greater Cleveland Food Bank and the Cleveland Public Library announced that they will again be providing free meals for children this summer.
Starting on June 1, anyone under the age of 18 will be able to receive a free meal. The library and the food bank hope this will help combat hunger for students and ensure they are able to get a meal.
Cleveland grandmother Delores Gray told News 5 she'll look into taking her grandsons to one of the summer feeding program locations.
Gray, who is also the Director of the Brickhouse Wellness women's support group and President of the Carl Stokes Brigadesaid she is seeing a growing need among Northeast Ohio low-income single mothers.
“What I’m seeing is more women, mothers, looking for places to pick up food to get food," Gray said. “I’ve seen a lot of need for food, a lot of need for daycare. Kids are at home, so they aren’t able to get the meals that they have at school, and most likely the parents are working or going to school.”
Karen Pozna with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank told News 5 the distribution will take place in six counties, including Cuyahoga, Ashland, Richland, Lake, Geauga, and Ashtabula, starting on June 1 until August 11.
“We are making up for the meals that the kids typically get during the school year," Pozna said. “We’re working with lots of different agencies like Boys and Girls Club, Salvation Army, even the MetroParks, we’ll be working with them at a couple of their different camps.
Pozna said the economy and rising consumer prices are yet another factors in growing need this summer.
“So many people are still dealing with inflation, higher food costs, with the end of all the pandemic benefits that many people were receiving, the end of all the SNAP benefits, which happened at the end of March," Pozna said.
“It’s for children anywhere from age zero to 18, they can go to any of these programs, it is essentially a declaration of self-need, which means you have to sign in."
Pozna said she's elated that many of the Cleveland Public Library's 27 neighborhood branch locations will be part of the summer program.
“They can go on their own, and believe it or not, there are lots of kids who are on their own in the summer, and that is why it’s so important for the Cleveland Public Library to be able to offer this meal," Pozna said. “It gets the kids to the library, so not only can they have a meal but hopefully they’ll stay there and get involved in some of the programming.”
All meals must be eaten at the distribution sites, however once a week children and teens can pick up a backpack meal to take home, which includes a two-day supply of meals, including two breakfasts, two entrees, and two snacks.
The program runs Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at Cleveland Public Library locations.
Meal times at other locations will vary, those interested in the summer feeding program can search for a location near their home by simply entering their zip code on the Greater Cleveland Food Bank search page.
For more information, click here.
