Lucy Gellman Photo
Cramer and Bromage.
James Cramer knows what it’s like be to a hungry kid in need of a summer meal when school’s closed. He wants fewer kids to have to face that reality. So he went around New Haven Saturday letting families know where their kids can find those meals this summer.
A little past 10 a.m., Cramer found himself on the quiet 500 block of Ellsworth Avenue, sandwiched comfortably between Whalley Avenue and Goffe Street. Houses sat politely back from their lawns. A few birds broke into summer song, syncing up with the sound of his sneakers on the pavement. Bright flyers in hand, he bounded from door to door, placing on each handle an announcement: As of Monday, New Haven’s Free Summer Food Program will be in full effect at 91 sites in the city.
Already, he and a four-person team had blanketed sections of Whalley with flyers about the summer program, which provides lunches (and at select sites, breakfast and dinner) Monday through Friday for kids 18 and under in a city where food insecurity is on the rise.
But the day was still young, and their work was far from over.
One kid in every six in New Haven experiences food insecurity at some point. An estimated 40 to 50 percent of kids in the city’s low-income neighborhoods don’t know where there next meal is coming from.
That’s exacerbated this time of year, as schools close their doors for summer vacation and families are pushed to look elsewhere for meals, particularly as their SNAP benefits run low near the end of each month.
Nolan.
Saturday Cramer joined around 60 volunteers at the city’s now-annual Summer Meals Blitz Day, a two-hour canvass intended to inform parents, childcare providers, business owners and kids in New Haven about the accessibility of free food during the summer months.
As a panel of speakers got volunteers excited to spread the word, Cramer stood right up front, nodding avidly as his chance to pound the pavement grew nearer. For the two-time Peace Corps veteran and student at the Yale Divinity School, where he has spent time at St. Luke’s soup kitchen and food pantry and organized Nourish New Haven conference, it’s an obligation.
It’s also personal: Cramer and his brother grew up using a small, regional arm of the USDA-sponsored Summer Food Service Program in northeast Ohio. The fewer Elm Citizens who experience the hunger that he did, he said, the better.
“I did the summer meals program in Ohio,” he said as volunteers fanned out across the city, their orange shirts becoming dots in the distance. “My brother and I went … They had the summer meals program, and we went a couple times. Not a couple times — like all the time. The huge problem is that summers are really expensive for families.”
Volunteers at the event.
Cramer added that as a volunteer at a food pantry, he sees how much work still needs to be done in the city, and is happy to lend a helping hand.
According to Blitz organizer Billy Bromage, director of community organizing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center and an active member of the New Haven Food Policy Council, only half of eligible kids took advantage of the program last year, despite a 42 percent increase in the number of meals served. Getting the word out to more New Haveners, he and End Hunger CT! Executive Director Lucy Nolan said at the event, is vital to the success of this year’s program.
“What we really need to do is get the word out,” said Nolan, a swelling, orange-shirted crowd reflected in her glasses. “That’s why you’re here. We know the blitzes work, because every year we have a big increase in the number of kids who get meals.”
Cramer canvassing.
Beyond a small army of volunteers like Cramer, there are a couple of ways that the Summer Food Program is already doing that. Since 0making the program an in-house affair in 2009, NHPS Director of Operations Will Clark said, “we have increased our summer food program and broken our own record in the state of Connecticut every year, serving meals and expanding sites.” Organizers have also responded to a growing need, adding 21 new sites to last year’s 70 for a total of 91. And a newly-donated, “tricked-out” bus from First Student will double the number of supper mobile sites from eight in 2015 to 16 in 2016.
Still, Nolan and others reminded volunteers Saturday, that wasn’t enough to bank on. Nodding from a thicket of orange shirts, Cramer appeared to be taking mental note as she and others spoke.
DeLauro.
“What better thing can you do than making sure that kids have a meal?” asked U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, spirits undeterred by a broken knee. “Your work is so critical today. Food is a miracle vaccine … everyone that takes it gets healthier. We need to think of food in that way. We need to vaccinate every child against hunger. To give each of them the best possible start in life. I say to you: In a land of plenty, no child in the United States of America should be hungry. We are a land of plenty.”
“Summer should be a joyous time for kids,” she added. “Not a time when they wonder where their next meal is coming from … Every child should get food and a nutritious meal. We need to enlist you in that fight to make a difference.”
Her words left attendees whooping wildly, ready to canvass despite a slowly climbing thermometer. As the volunteers broke off into groups for a final debriefing, Cramer stood up front, grabbing a green tote bag from Bromage that was filled with flyers. He surrounded himself with volunteers: Elizabeth Beaucham and Victor Lawrence of Actual Foods, and community member Kim Hart. Before they decided to divide and conquer, he smiled.
“Okay, y’all,” he said, waving as they fanned out across Whalley. “Good luck!”
To find out the locations and times of the Free Summer Meals program nearest your location, check out the program’s website or call 211. Information will be available at those locations at the end of June.
To listen to an episode of WNHH’s “Kitchen Sync” about food insecurity, mental health and the summer meals program, click on or download the audio above.
To listen to an interview with Lucy Nolan about the End Hunger campaign in Connecticut, click on or download the audio above.