OSWEGO COUNTY – As of 2019, Oswego County had the sixth-highest food insecurity rate among children in the state of New York; however, over the last decade-plus, resources have been utilized to mitigate that high percentage of 21.6%.
While 5,430 kids have faced hunger, according to a study from Feeding America, Oswego County Opportunities will continue to provide free breakfast and lunch as part of the Summer Food Service Program.
OCO has been involved in this partnership with the USDA since 2011, serving over 185,000 meals, according to the nutrition services coordinator, Lori Halstead. The program itself is critical for students who receive free or reduced cost meals during the school year and could otherwise go hungry during the summer months.
“Families rely on free and reduced meals during the school year and in the summer, hunger does not take a vacation,” Halstead said. “[The program] is funded by the USDA, and the program offers free meals to all children ages 18 and under in low-income areas. The goal of the program is to ensure that children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Studies show that children who eat healthy during the summer remember more of what they learned in school and are better prepared when they go back in the fall.”
OCO has nine different locations offering some combination of breakfast, lunch and a snack ranging from June to early September.
Unlike the last two years, these meals are not grab-and-go, but instead, kids eat onsite where they participate in other activities, according to Halstead. The grab-and-go option is only allowed in extreme cases because the USDA waivers have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic has simmered down.
“In 2020 and 2021, the USDA granted waivers so that parents or guardians could pick up meals for children to be consumed off-site, and it was allowed to pick up several days of meals,” Halstead said. “The USDA waivers became more strict and were only granted for offsite consumption in extreme cases.”
Since the change in waivers, transportation has created a barrier for some kids to receive these benefits, especially for a “very rural” county like Oswego, noted Halstead; however, OCO’s nine sites are not the only areas to pick up meals.
According to Halstead, every school district in the county offers free meals through Seamless Summer Option and other programs. Oswego City School District is one one these districts to offer meals through the Summer Food Service Program, where children 18 and under can pick up free meals at Oswego High School, Oswego Middle School and Frederick Leighton School. Breakfast is served from 8:30-10 a.m., while lunch is available from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
While there is not much data in Oswego County regarding food insecurity since the COVID-19 pandemic began, national studies from Feeding America suggest that people that experienced food insecurity before COVID-19 “are facing greater hardships” since the pandemic. Feeding America projections saw an increase in national food insecurity among children from 2019’s number of 14.6% to 19.9% in 2020.
During the school year, Blessings in a Backpack is another program that supplements free meals from the schools. According to Missy Russell, the program coordinator for Oswego’s Blessings in a Backpack, it serves children from all seven OCSD schools.
The program itself does not work with OCO or the district, but rather takes donations from the community and purchases its food with them. The program provides students that receive free or reduced meals at school with roughly eight items every weekend as a supplement to get them through what could be a difficult two days.
“A lot of the time, those students go home and may not have much,” Russell said. “This is just to supplement their weekend, so when they come back to school they are ready to learn and not suffer the consequences of not having food for the weekend. Because when they leave, Friday afternoon and when they come back [Monday morning], that’s 65 hours [possibly without] food.”
This past school year, Blessings in a Backpack helped feed around 380 students for 38 weekends with a cost of roughly $2.10 per weekend per child. Since the pandemic, however, the number of students in the program has dropped from 400, something that Russell noted as rather strange.
“You would think our students would be in more of a need because of the pandemic,” Russell said. “We know there’s a need, but I guess we’re not finding the students that may need it.”
Families or students that may need the additional support can send teachers, counselors or other school support staff a note asking to participate.
Despite the food insecurity rate in the county, there are ways to find nutritious food for those that need it most. From government-sponsored programs to non-profits like Blessings in a Backpack, the Oswego County community has come together to try to resolve the food insecurity issue.
“Oswego County is a close-knit, caring community that comes together to provide services to those in need,” Halstead said.
While Russell added, “You donate money, and you can be feeding that child that’s riding their bike on the sidewalk in your neighborhood, or you could see them in Walmart. These are our kids. We need to take care of them, and we are only able to do that because of the support we’ve had.”
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