Perret: Don't forget Austin's hungry in the summer months

by Hank Perret, president and CEO

Summer is here again, with all the great traditions and activities that define the season. But while summer in Austin offers a wealth of options for fun and recreation for most of us, it also presents some very stark realities for the growing number of Central Texans facing hunger.

To put a fine point on it: When many of us are thinking about how much fun we can have this summer, thousands of our neighbors will be worrying about where their next meal will come from. That, to me, is shameful.

As temperatures rise, seniors struggle to afford electricity bills and are forced to make tough budget choices, with food often coming out at the bottom of the priorities list below other essentials like housing, medication and utilities.

And with school out, children don’t have access to free or reduced price lunches — programs that two-thirds of the kids in the Austin school district benefit from. This stretches already tight family budgets to the limit, since hunger doesn’t go on summer break. Can you imagine your child dreading the thought of summer, instead of looking forward to it?

The role of good nutrition in a child’s development and well-being is beyond question. As a parent, the thought of any child going hungry and missing out on the chance to reach their full potential is unacceptable to me, as it must be to you. Yet when 25 percent of Central Texas kids are at risk of hunger, we’re playing Russian roulette not just with their health but with the future of our community.

While it might seem implausible to you that hunger is such a vast and growing issue in the midst of Austin’s growth spurt, recent data from Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap survey show that the number of people facing hunger in the Capital Area Food Bank’s service area grew by 14.5 percent between 2009 and 2012, to an alarming estimate of nearly 459,000. This glaring contrast between prosperity and need is blowing the old adage “a rising tide lifts all boats” right out of the water.

So, yes, hunger is an issue here despite the economic boom — and never more so than during the summer. As a result, it’s a time when the Capital Area Food Bank struggles to raise food and funds to meet the increased demand so that kids, families and seniors can enjoy their summer as much as the rest of us do.

That’s why the food bank is launching our Summer Meals That Matter campaign, with an aggressive goal this year of raising 1 million meals. The funds raised from Summer Meals That Matter will provide nutritious food that will help our neighbors all summer long and make sure kids are ready to return to school in the fall ready to learn.

This summer, won’t you help us bring everyone to the table by joining us in the fight against hunger in our community? Because when you think about it, when our neighbors go hungry, we all miss out on their full potential. That’s why summer meals really do matter to us all.

For more information and to donate to Summer Meals That Matter, visit austinfoodbank.org.

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