Free breakfast and lunch for every Maine child

Summer season in Maine generally is a enjoyable and enjoyable time – particularly in case you’re a scholar on faculty break. The summers I spent exploring our nice outdoor once I was a child are a few of my most cherished reminiscences. However for a lot of children, summer time will also be a nerve-racking time, particularly if faculty is your solely supply of dependable diet. No little one ought to have to fret about the place their subsequent meal is coming from, however the unhappy actuality is that one in six Maine youngsters expertise meals insecurity, which may have destructive impacts on their well being, cognitive improvement and total wellbeing.

Right here in Maine, we take care of one another in our neighborhood, and we’re dedicated to making sure that none of our youngsters go hungry. Final yr, Maine’s Legislature handed one of many nation’s first common free faculty meal legal guidelines, with bipartisan assist. That implies that each Maine public faculty scholar can get free faculty meals, no matter how a lot cash their household makes. This was such an essential step in ensuring that no scholar falls by the cracks simply because their household makes just a little an excessive amount of – or as a result of they forgot to show in some paperwork. We additionally expanded the Native Meals Fund final yr, which helps colleges buy regionally grown, harvested and produced meals like fruits, veggies, meat, fish and value-added dairy. Not solely does this present Maine college students with recent and wholesome meals, it helps assist the native farmers and meals producers who energy our native economies. I’m so proud and grateful that we have been in a position to get this accomplished.

However these free meals don’t finish when the college yr does. All through the summer time, all Mainers 18 years previous and youthful are eligible without cost breakfasts and lunches. To seek out meal websites, dates and occasions close to you, go to hotlunchsummer.com or go to Wholesome Lincoln County’s web site at https://healthylincolncounty.org/ and click on on the purple banner on the high of the web page. Regardless of the place you reside, it is best to discover the sources crucial in order that the youngsters in your life have all of the vitality and diet they should dwell this Maine summer time to its fullest.

We’re so fortunate to have Wholesome Lincoln County serving our neighborhood, as a result of they supply a lot greater than only a listing of summer time meal websites. Additionally they function the Meals Safety Hotline, which is a quantity you’ll be able to name or textual content to be linked with the meals sources you want. You may attain that Hotline at (207) 350-0536. Additionally they present up-to-date month-to-month calendars with the hours and make contact with numbers of native meals pantries, which you’ll find by visiting their web site. And, they preserve observe of details about Meals on Wheels, which farmers markets settle for EBT, how seniors can get free meals packing containers or free locally-grown produce, and extra. They’re actually an outstanding group, and in case you’re ever in want of some further assist I strongly encourage you to achieve out to them.

Ensuring each child has the diet they should be taught, develop and play is one in every of our foremost obligations as a society, and we’ve taken some main steps ahead these previous couple years. In the event you ever have questions on these applications, or in case you ever need assistance discovering meals for the individuals in your loved ones – regardless of their age – I’m at all times right here to do what I can. You may ship me an e-mail at Chloe.Maxmin@legislature.maine.gov, name or textual content my mobile phone at (207) 200-6224 or discover me on Fb at www.fb.com/ChloeForSenate. You can too join my common e-newsletter by visiting www.mainesenate.org, the place I share meals and different sources in addition to legislative updates.