White Hall students eligible for free breakfast, lunch

While summer is often considered a carefree, funfilled season, for 1 in 4 children in Jefferson County, it’s a time filled with worry about their next meal or worse, living with hunger.

The White Hall School District in partnership with the Arkansas Foodbank is now serving breakfast and lunch at no cost at Moody Elementary School and at White Hall High School this summer through July 30.

It’s part of the Arkansas Foodbank’s Free Summer Meals program. However in White Hall, it’s only open to the district’s students, but there are 19 sites around Jefferson County where kids under 18 can eat for free. No questions about income or location are asked.

More than 50% of Jefferson County students qualify for the federally funded free or reduced lunch program, said Erica McFadden, the food bank’s coordinator of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The program was made possible through a Feeding America and Morgan Stanley Foundation Child Hunger Covid-19 Community Collaboration Grant through Feeding America, McFadden said.

Also, the grant is used to partner with already established programs around the county, McFadden said.

Since the school district was already feeding kids, it was a natural fit, as was the White Hall Food Pantry and the Centennial Fellowship food pantry, McFadden said.

A REAL NEED

If the Arkansas Foodbank didn’t do it, then 1 in 4 kids living in the White Hall School District might go hungry this summer.

On top of an already existing hunger problem, when covid-19 hit Arkansas, it drove up unemployment up to about 7.6%. In turn, childhood poverty shot up by 5%, McFadden said.

“Jefferson County was hit hard,” and while many see White Hall as an affluent community, she said there are many vulnerable populations such as the handicapped, senior citizens and children that were already struggling with hunger.

Last year, Stephen Harrison, White Hall Family Church lead pastor and the White Hall Food Pantry Board president, said, “We are aware it’s bad in our area.”

The food pantry experienced an uptick in need, he said.

“Covid added another layer to childhood hunger and poverty. It exposed the depth and seriousness of this problem,” McFadden said.

So, instead of a disaster, McFadden’s organization and others saw it as an opportunity that they couldn’t pass up on. They’re using it to bring awareness to and, it’s hoped, address hunger.

“It gave us a bigger stage to bring awareness to the problem,” McFadden said.

More information about Free Summer Meals or to find a feeding site is available at Arkansasfoodbank.org.