Summer Food Service Program

Feeding Hungry Hids in Watonwan County

By Julie Siple, Minnesota Public Radio

Lydia Olsen was just 22 years old when she found a way to feed hungry kids in Watonwan County.

Olsen saw an article in a local newspaper about the federally-funded Summer Food Service Program and thought: "We need that."

Olsen and her colleagues in Community Education worked with area schools to launch three sites offering free food for kids in Watonwan County — one each in St. James, Madelia, and Butterfield-Odin school districts.

Olsen had worked with low-income families in St. James and saw that many needed help with summer food. "It's not discussed very openly, but the kids will tell me, 'We didn't have dinner last night,' or 'We had to share what we usually have on our own; me and my brother shared it,'" Olsen recalled.

All over the state, families that rely on school meals to feed their kids during the year sometimes struggle to afford enough nutritious food when kids are home for break. Last year, 107 groups signed up to provide free summer food, serving an all-time high of 1.7 million meals. Education officials say the state needs still more sites, especially outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area

One of the hardest things was getting children to the lunchroom. Olsen was able to help children who live in a nearby mobile home park. Like a pied piper, she led them across railroad tracks and busy intersections once a week.

"It's just like a school bus, only we walked," Olsen said. "We had leaders at the front and the back, and kids in between."

Anyone could come, regardless of income. In that way, Olsen said, eating free food in the summer didn't carry a stigma. But it helped low-income families stretch their food budgets, saving the money they might have used for lunch, and putting it toward dinner.