MHFC: Gearing up efforts for a Summer Meals Program in 2020
The McKinney Hunger Free Coalition was created to help a group of very dedicated local organizations come together and increase the overall efficiency of feeding hungry McKinney citizens. They discovered that while each group worked to achieve their own mission, they were not clear how other organizations were going about accomplishing their goals. Thus, they gathered as a coalition to focus on three main objectives: to promote networking, to gather and share information, and to advocate for the hungry in their community.
Realizing there was a lack of understanding among the coalition partners of what each group was doing in the community, they started their group’s work by increasing the communication between groups in the hunger/food insecurity sector. This led the coalition to create a partner information booklet, outlining the programs each group offered. The booklet was shared both electronically and via print. Once finalized, the MHFC plans to draft a simpler summary for public consumption. This document will be very helpful when groups are working with clients, to help them quickly refer them to other agencies or groups for the services they need.
By collaborating with the school district, the team discovered that from 2018 to 2019 McKinney lost half of its summer feeding sites and the participation level went down significantly. In 2019, only 5 sites were open in McKinney. (vs. 10 in 2018) and some of those sites were open only 4—5 weeks during the summer. Additionally, the team found that 40% of the students lived 20-30 minutes away from the feeding site established for them. Therefore, in 2020, the team’s goal is to address these barriers and to increase the number of children fed next year. The team has started brainstorming and researching ways to get meals to the kids instead of making kids and their families come to the food. So far, they have taken inspiration and advice from different programs around the country including Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas. The most helpful model is an existing pop-up food program in Plano run by Custer United Methodist Church. This program feeds 200 people per day on average. Moving forward, MHFC hopes to unite and engage its members by building and endorsing new summer meal sites for 2020. While still in the beginning stages of their plan, we are amazed by their determination and excited to see what they accomplish in 2020 and beyond!
Author: Brooke Dal Santo
10/7/2019
