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It is a wonderful public service for OPB to run this program. What would be the possibility of OBP running Public Service Announcements before Sesame Street or Blues Clues?

My guess is that people do not know where the food is. It could be in a church or community building--not in the school where it used to be. Many people do not or cannot read, so radio and tv promotion would make sense. Also, contacting churches, parks and recreation and neighborhood groups to get the word out that our neighbors have options. Or maybe it is a matter of requesting the kids bring friends with them the next day.

Also, local celebrities and community leaders can show up, maybe with cameras in tow.

In Oregon, as above, the site is www.summerfoodoregon.org, phone number 1-800-safe-net. The phone number has translators.

In Washington, people can call 1-888-436-6392 to find the location of a summer food site for kids, free, no paperwork. Family Food has a lookup by zip code for summer food sites. See http://www.familyfoodline.org/index.php?page=summermeals

Also, printed materials, including a coloring page for kids, that can be ordered.

Many thanks to Lynne Reinoso at the Community Nutrition Child Nutrition Programs of the Oregon Department of Education (and your guest Annie Kirschner) for their help to figure out how to help the outreach. We have a growing group of 30 leaders committed to increasing access to summer food across the nation as part of our commitment to reduce hunger for 500,000 people by July 30.

Our research shows that Oregon and Washington do a better job than most states, but even with that, between the two states, if we were even at 40% participation, we'd have 100,000 fewer hungry kids. Our project website is http:/feed500K.ning.com.

posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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