For thousands of Oklahoma children, summer not only marks the end of school, it marks the end of the only substantial meal they may receive through their school’s free or reduced-price lunch program, which in Mayes County accounts for 4,550 students, or 61 percent of the student population. Federally subsidized summer meal programs are available to fill this nutritional gap, but very few of them exist in Oklahoma. In fact, summer feeding programs are available for only five of every 100 Oklahoma children who participate in the National School Lunch Program, according to the Food Research and Action Center. That sad statistic places Oklahoma dead last in the nation.

Because so few children are able to participate in a summer feeding program, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that food insecurity and hunger increase in the summertime for households with children, forcing many of them to turn to emergency food pantries for help.

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma is a non-profit organization that distributes almost 10 million pounds of food annually to 450 programs in 24 counties of Eastern Oklahoma, including nine programs in Mayes County. These programs include soup kitchens, homeless shelters,

on-site programs and food pantries.

“Many people are under the impression that November and December are the busiest months for emergency food pantries,” said Sara Waggoner, the Executive Director of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. “In reality, summer is one of the busiest times.”

According to Waggoner, summer

is also when food donations drop

dramatically. Couple that with the current economic climate and this summer promises to be a challenging one for the agencies in Mayes County.

With an 8.9 percent unemployment rate, which is 2.7 percent

higher than the state average and 5.4 percent higher than this time last year, agencies in Mayes County are seeing an overall increase in the number of people seeking assistance. Community Action Resource and Development (CARD), an emergency assistance program providing food and financial assistance to low-income households, says they are seeing a definite increase

in the number of people coming to them for

assistance.

“We see five to six families on a typical Monday,” said Patricia Sandefer, Community Services Representative at CARD. “We were closed on Memorial Day. The next day we saw 20 families. With the layoffs, I’m seeing some people who have never sought assistance before, people needing help that haven’t started to receive unemployment benefits yet.”

CARD is one of the nine programs in Mayes County that depends on the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma to provide much of the food that it distributes to those in need. Last fiscal year, the Food Bank provided 163,856 pounds of food to these programs, the equivalent of 126,043 meals.

Sandefer estimates that of the food that she distributes to the families coming to her for assistance, about 75 percent of it comes from the Food Bank, much of it in the form of protein, such as frozen breaded catfish, chicken and canned tuna. “Without the support of the Food Bank, I’d have to buy food from the grocery store and I wouldn’t get nearly as much,” said Sandefer.

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma distributes enough food to its 24-county service area to feed 50,000 people each week. Food donations are not keeping up with the current need and it is not certain how they will meet the increase in demand expected this summer. “We know that hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation,” said Waggoner.

To help ensure that agencies in this area continue to have the food they need, especially for all those children now on summer vacation, support these agencies through the Food Bank. In today’s edition of the Pryor Daily Times, there is an envelope that you can use to make a contribution to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma or you can contribute online at www.cfbeo.org. Every dollar received allows the Food Bank to distribute enough food for seven meals.

For more information about the programs in Mayes County, contact Joanne Burdick, Director of Agency Relations at the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, at (918) 585-2800, ext. 113 or jburdick@cfbeo.org.