For people like Shaneka Haynes, a single mother in Atlanta with five
children aged 3 to 15, there is worry.
Children face hunger across Deep South after states refuse summer food
aid
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Esther Schrader Read the full piece here
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Friend,
The day school gets out for summer sparkles in the American
imagination as a vision of children spilling out of classrooms into
joyful weeks of freedom and warmth.
But in reality, the summer months bring something else for millions of
children across the country: hunger.
For people like Shaneka Haynes, a single mother in Atlanta with five
children aged 3 to 15, there is also worry. Even fear.
When school is in session, her children get hot breakfasts and lunches
at school. She relies on those meals to ensure that her kids
don't go hungry, so they can focus on their schoolwork while she
works long hours braiding hair in a beauty salon. The $300 in food
stamps she gets each month don't stretch far.
"During the summer it's really not enough," said
Haynes, 34.
The nearest grocery store is a 30-minute walk from the small house
Haynes rents with the help of federal housing assistance. She has no
car and no family members nearby who can help her put food on the
table. Some nights, there is no food.
"I try to go to church food giveaways and such, but it's
hard to get over there," Haynes said. "It's harder
in the summer than it is in the school year."
The lack of food over the summer is a tragedy for millions of American
families, and the federal government is seeking to address this
problem with a new food assistance program approved by Congress with
bipartisan support.
The idea is simple: Give families with low incomes a modest sum they
can use to buy food during the summer, when free school breakfasts and
lunches for students in need are not available.
But 15 states have opted out of the program set to begin this year.
That shuts more than 8 million children out of the food assistance
this June, July and August
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, about half of them in the Deep South states of Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Read More
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