Thaoly Nguyen Nicole Wong

Serving 1 in 6 residents of Alameda County.

Community: Alameda community county Area: From Berkeley to Fremont, Oakland to Livermore Last summer, over 140 school and community sites throughout Alameda County “Provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need to learn, play, and grow, throughout the summer months when they are out of school.” 30 years and running

Population: 1.5 millions Operate in low- income areas where at least half of the children come from families with incomes at or below 185 percent of the Federal poverty level, making them eligible for free and reduced- price school meals. Regardless of their family income Age 18 and under

FEDERAL STATE LOCAL CENTRAL SITE

A high percentage of children enrolled in the closest public school are eligible for free or reduced price school lunch Site must have appropriate facilities and capacity for children to eat on- site (Clean eating area, table and chairs, working refrigerator with working thermometer) Site must provide adequate supervision during meal-times Program must run for at least 2 weeks for the minimum of 20 children or youth Site Supervisor and staff must attend ONE mandatory Summer Food Service Training Interested sites must meet the following guidelines:

RegionPercent California56.7% RegionPercent Alameda County42.2% Contra Costa County 37.7% Fresno County69.2% Los Angeles County 65.3% Orange County45.6% Riverside County 60.0% Sacramento County 56.5% San Bernardino County 65.8% San Diego County 50.2% Santa Clara County 38.0% Students Eligible to Receive Free or Reduced Price School Meals: 2011 Definition: Percentage of public school students eligible to receive free or reduced price meals. A child's family income must fall below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines ($29,055 for a family of four in 2011) to qualify for free meals, or below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines ($41,348 for a family of four in 2011) to qualify for reduced- cost meals.federal poverty guidelines WHY CHOSEN?

Children are the most vulnerable to hunger 35% of emergency food recipients are children under the age of 8. 25% of client households with children report that their children skipped meals due to lack of food that money in the previous 12months. In 38% of client households with children, wither a parent, a child or both experience hunger. 60% of children in shelter client households experience hunger. Food Insecurity 340,000 Alameda County residents are vulnerable to food insecurity. Poverty 165,897 people (11%) of Alameda county residents lived at or below the federal poverty threshold in 2004 WHY CHOSEN?

The Alameda County Community Food Bank partners with the city in ways to assist with the free summer lunch program It helps connect the city with sites that would work as lunch distribution points. Provides the volunteers to the cities are implementing the program. Trained the staffs Deliver the food to the location Provides the volunteers who operate the phones lines parents can call to learn about where their children can get free lunch. Provides the county with outreach and promotion through the emergency helpline, banners & flyers FREE LUNCH FOR KIDS! FOOD BANK PROVIDES VOLUNTEERS CITY OF OAKLAND PROVIDES FOOD LIBRARY PROVIDES THE SPACES

Last year, staff at the food bank contacted the libraries in Oakland and Alameda County to discuss the possibly of the libraries providing a space where children could have lunch. In 2011, Food Bank + City of Oakland + OUSD embarked on unique 2- week trial pilot project to provide summer lunch in an entirely new location: 3 Oakland Public Libraries (areas with the highest need). Food bank take on the role of recruiting and training the volunteers needed to run these sites. Took no more than a day for children to learn that they could show up at noon for a free lunch and free books. Two days before the libraries are scheduled closure for the summer, they learned that they were allowed to remain open throughout the summer. Within a day of this news, two other librarians wanted to join the program to serve as Free Summer Lunch program site at their branches due to how much the community welcomed this service. Food Bank provides volunteers at all 4 sites for the remaining 8 weeks of summer.

Evaluated Counted the number of children that got lunch How well the program was incorporated with the staff at the library Food Bank comes several time to the library to check how the program is progressing Public Health Department Food safety standards

CHALLENGES DIFFICULTIES WITH VOLUNTEER COORDINATION Finding volunteer “ supervisors” for 4 days shifts Coordinating the volunteer schedule for all 4 sites Managing interested business groups DIFFICULTIES WITH SITE PARTICIPATION Library site with extremely low turnout Library site with extremely high turnout

MORE THAN 120 KIDS WERE FED EVERYDAY Last summer- All SLP 90,000 meals 2,000 meals/day INCREASED IN MEMBERSHIPS, USAGE, AND LIBRARY BRANCHES PRODUCED MANY BEST PRACTICES RECEIVED POSITIVE MEDIA ATTENTION SUCCESSES

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER? Obtain an feedback survey from parents or children Reach out to older kids (mostly K-5 comes to the program ) Providing hot meals

REFERENCES eligible.aspx?loc=127,171,357,364,365,367,344,366,368,59,2 eligible.aspx?loc=127,171,357,364,365,367,344,366,368,59,2 Library-case-study.pdf Library-case-study.pdf vices/OAK vices/OAK Nina Lindsay (Library supervisor)