It's the time of year when school-aged children everywhere are celebrating the end of school.  For most kids it signifies anticipated days of staying up later and sleeping in longer. It's spending muggy days at the pool, riding bikes with their friends, or leveling up on the latest video game.  It's schedule-free; it's carefree. 

 

 

While demand increases, food donations tend to decrease throughout the summer. At Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, we refer to this as a "Summer Food Drought."   At a time when families need us most, our pantry shelves are growing empty. The lack of donations can have a ripple effect.  When donations are down, and our shelves are bare, we don't have as much food to give out.  We compromise by giving out less food per person.  Eventually, our clients reach a breaking point where they can no longer stretch out the food they receive any further. 

 

The stress for these families mounts even higher when, faced with the decision between buying groceries or paying their rent, they are all too often going hungry.

 

Even through the expansive efforts of our Kids Summer Food Program, we recognize we cannot feed every hungry child in our 21 county service area this summer.  Perhaps it's not feasible for a working parent to get to one of our food sites or it's just not yet available in their area. 

 

 

In addition to parish and grocery store food drives, donations can be dropped off at any of our nine food pantries.  Visit us online at catholiccharitiesks.org/givehope for a list of needed items and locations.

 

No one should experience hunger this summer - especially a child.