Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:16 Summer break is here for Ohio's kids, which is welcome news in some ways, but for many kids, summer break also means they will be missing out on free breakfasts and lunches at school. Fortunately, there are resources including the summer food service program to help meet the nutritional needs of Ohio students. Unfortunately, the summer food service program only provides food to about one in 10 Ohio kids who normally count on free or reduced price school meals. So in this episode, Ohio association of food banks, director of grocery procurement and child nutrition initiatives, Carol Whitmer sat down with a couple wonderful outof school time meal champions to talk about how they work within the summer food service program regulations to feed as many kids as possible and how they wish the program might be modernized to allow them to feed many more kids in need.
Speaker 2 00:01:19 Hi, this is Carol Whitmer. I'm the director of child nutrition, uh, initiatives with the Ohio association of food banks. And I wanna welcome everyone today, um, for our discussion about the summer food service program. So I'd like our two guests, Diana and Shane to go ahead and introduce themselves and tell us where they are from.
Speaker 3 00:01:42 Okay. Uh, hi, I'm Diana David. I'm the director of programs at the greater Cleveland food bank in Cleveland, Ohio. Um, I oversee all of the children's nutrition program programming here at the food bank, as well as our mobile pantry programs. And I've been at this for six years now.
Speaker 2 00:02:00 So great. Glad to have you and Shane, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4 00:02:04 I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on today. Uh, as she said, I'm Shane Hoffman, I'm the technology services manager at the plain city public library. And I co-founded a group called team vis, uh, we're a group of librarians who talk at conferences around the state. We do webinars in the state regionally, uh, whatever we can do to tell people, especially libraries about getting involved in summer food service after school meals and other food programs that are available. We feel that libraries are great, uh, launching pads into the community for these initiatives, whether the library is the place where it happens or whether it happens at somebody else's site.
Speaker 2 00:02:52 Great. Well, thanks for joining us today. I wanted to give everyone a little bit of background about what summer food service is. Um, we may use the acronym SF S P summer food service program today. Just a little, um, background for you there. Um, the summer food service program is part of the national school lunch program. The school meals that are served in schools, uh, every day throughout the United States when the school year is open. So the purpose is to fill that gap or need for kids that are, won't be getting meals, breakfast and lunch. Um, during the summertime, we're only mainly gonna be talking about what we consider an open site today. Um, these, um, sites serve needy kids, um, in areas where 50% or more children reside in an area eligible for free and reduced meals. So, um, that's kind of how the sites qualify and to give you a little bit of knowledge of how many kids eat summer lunch every year over 3 million children receive lunch on average, on an average day in the summertime, um, these meals are served at in school districts, um, through local governments, non-profits at parks, recreation centers, um, housing projects, boys and girls clubs, a whole variety of places where kids gather in the summertime.
Speaker 2 00:04:19 But just to give you a little more context, only one in seven kids who receive a free or reduced lunch during the school year access a summer program. And there are many barriers to that, um, program, some of which are living out in rural areas. So there isn't a bus to take kids into those sites, um, crime in the neighborhood, parents not wanting their kids to go out, you know, during the summer kids just not knowing that the program exists. So it is a good program. It does have many benefits. Like they do provide activities. A lot of them provide activities for kids. Um, it helps with learning loss. It helps stretch a family's budget in the summertime with you're missing a lunch and a, a breakfast that's huge on a family's budget. Um, but the big drawback, like I said, is one and seven kids only receive those meals.
Speaker 2 00:05:15 And that is mainly because the kids have to eat on site. They can't take the food away. Now during COVID, there were re those, a lot of those restrictions were waived because of kids, not the government or the communities not wanting kids to eat and spread COVID. So the kids could take food home for five days, um, or some even gave kids food for seven days. So that was huge. A lot more kids were able to be served during the, during, um, the COVID time. So if we could go ahead and, um, maybe talk about what each of our organizations do. Um, I will start first, like I said, I'm the director of summer initiatives or child initiatives here at the Ohio association of food banks. Um, as the association, we do run a summer what we call weekend meal program, where we give kids a bag of food, um, who attended traditional summer food service site to take home on the weekend to, um, cover those six meals.
Speaker 2 00:06:19 They would be losing, um, during the weekend time. And we also, um, run a world meal delivery program where we actually pack a box of food and our, um, partners either deliver it, or parents will come once a week to pick up those boxes. And these are for kids that live in rural parts of Ohio that, um, have no transportation and cannot have access to the, um, summer programs. These programs are limited, cuz it's a limited funding. It is not, these are not U S D a programs I probably should have said before. Um, the summer food service program is, um, a U S D a um, program it's paid through, through reimbursements through the federal government. So the programs that we run, um, are not a run through federal government. So it is very limited in the amount of kids we can actually reach in the summer. Some of our member food banks, like Cleveland do run summer food service programs, and those are very successful in the communities they, they reach. So Diana, if you wanna maybe give a little more background of what you do in the summer pre COVID and now with the COVID waivers being lifted, um, to give people idea of what you are doing there in 21.
Speaker 3 00:07:42 Okay. Um, we've been participating in the summer feeding program for 14 years now. Um, it has morphed as each year has gone by, depending on what kind of rules and regulations, the, uh, U S D a puts out for us. Um, we sponsor, like you said, we sponsor boys and girls clubs. We sponsor local libraries and county libraries, churches we've even had it at a fire station a couple of times, depending on which summer it is and when they are, um, able to accommodate our needs and the children's needs around them. We also, um, have partnered now with the, uh, this year, I'll just say with the Cleveland Metro parks. So we'll be joining them with their lunch and learn program, um, uh, eight, six, I'm sorry, 10 times. Wow. I forgot there were five parks. Uh, so it'll be 10 times during the summer, they'll have a lunch and learn.
Speaker 3 00:08:33 We'll bring lunch. They will have lunch to serve to the children. So we look for unique, um, partnerships, but we find that some of our most stable partnerships are our libraries and our boys and girls clubs who have been with us pretty much from the day we started the program. We sponsor in, uh, five out of our six county, um, in our five out of our six county service area. And, um, that's Cuyahoga lake, Jaga Ashland, Richland and lake counties. And we find that, you know, as we've moved through the years, we started with 10 and we are currently up to a hundred to 105 each summer, um, during COVID that was really very different. Um, we'll I can say that we went from a hundred sites to 60 sites during the major part of COVID. Um, and of those 60 sites, 18 of them were, were our own mobile truck going out.
Speaker 3 00:09:28 So, um, as we sponsor those sites, we averaged before COVID about 190,000 meals going out during that say 48 to 50 day period during the summer that we run our program. Um, and that's in the two years prior to COVID. So we found that, you know, our sites were carryover sites. So a lot of our sites were already on with us during after school at risk feeding, um, or as we call it kids cafe and they, uh, just moved into summer, along with us, knowing that the kids would be in need of those meals since they wouldn't be going in the years prior to COVID probably going to summer school or any kind of activity at the school. So they'd be losing their breakfast and lunch and that, um, so over that time, we count our children as unduplicated. So a hundred thousand, 190,000 meals, we were looking at over 5,000 unduplicated children during that time, um, that we covered in this program.
Speaker 3 00:10:27 And we knew there were more out there. We were looking for new ways to go ahead and reach out. Um, once COVID hit, it was, it was a major shock for everyone, as we all know, um, but going from a hundred to 60 sites and trying to figure out how to reach those children, who a weren't coming out of the house, either doing due to COVID restrictions or their parents. And so in the time period of when the COVID waivers from U S D a came out, we had 10 days. And in 10 days we turned around our program to have two mobile trucks leaving the food bank every day, five days a week, and having at least two stops each. So that's where the 18 sites would come in. Um, because we knew they weren't going to be able to go to library because the libraries were closed.
Speaker 3 00:11:14 Um, and at the boys and girls clubs were closed at that time, especially early on in, um, 2000. So with those two trucks, um, we were able to go to the parking lots as the libraries because they knew we would be in their neighborhood and we could help, uh, families by giving out. We gave out five days worth of food. During that time we would give out, uh, breakfast lunch, and then we would give a, uh, shelf stable backpack to make sure that during that time period that we would be gone when we came back there, we would be kind of at the end, but we could help them get through that five days. Um, we coordinated with our local school district, Cleveland pub, uh, metropolitan school district to make sure we were not near them because they were doing the same thing at school sites.
Speaker 3 00:12:00 So our collaboration worked very well to help us, um, in 2000 and, and 20 in that time period, we served 189,000 plus meals, which is our average for the two years prior to that. Um, and most of that came from our mobile units. After that in 2021 in the, in the mobile unit, we moved back to aid sites because as restrictions started to lift our library started to reopen. They were doing grab and go directly from the libraries. And so that really helped us. Um, we wanted to get our regular partners back into the swing of things. We didn't wanna lose our trucks, uh, but we technically wanted to continue with that program because of the grab and go. And, um, a funny thing with that, we just, uh, received our brand new mobile truck, um, last week Tuesday, and we no longer have waivers.
Speaker 3 00:12:57 So we are currently trying to figure out what to do with this beautiful new truck. Um, but we are gonna figure out a way to get out there into the community and help out. But, uh, with this, I mean, like you said, the waivers came about at the right time at COVID and it took a while, unfortunately to get that decision. I mean, turning a program around in 10 days, um, to make sure that we could reach the children in our neighborhood was, was a pretty big feat. And I give my credit to all of my staff for being able to do that. But, um, you know, it's, it's a program that morphs itself, depending on where you live and I, you know, being in a rural area and we do have rural counties, that's where we're trying to look forward forward to getting either more sites or moving our mobile units down into those areas, um, to, to get to the children we found during COVID that we could get to more children and give them a better, uh, give them better access to the food than having it at set locations. The libraries are great. It is true. They're all through our neighborhoods, but when we could go to them, we saw that we were serving more children.
Speaker 2 00:14:11 Great. I, I liked what you said about, well, I don't know if I liked it, but your, your point about you had 10 days to turn around. And I, one thing I feel like COVID taught us is all those things that we were told could not happen, can happen. <laugh>, you know, uh, we can't, you know, feed kids, uh, grab and go in the summer, but when COVID happened, we were able to do that. And, uh, people, you know, stepped up to the plate and really, you know, went above and beyond to help kids and serve people that needed it. So, Shane, um, if you'd like to, um, tell us a little bit about what you do and how you coordinate with summer food, and also then talk about how things changed for the libraries during COVID.
Speaker 4 00:15:00 Uh, thank you. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah, like I said, about five years ago, we started this group called team vis, which is just a loose organization with some librarians who had some experience with summer food and other food programs and noticed that people tended to get stuck. They didn't understand it. They didn't know where to start, or, you know, maybe the paperwork was difficult. So we decided our best bet was to band together and start going out, talking at conferences, meeting people where they are and getting past misconceptions. I think our person, uh, Sarah shaft calls it, uh, getting, getting over the stucks. What are the things you're stuck on? And so one of the first things we figured out was our three points. We tried to hit with everybody. We talked to, uh, the first one is that you don't have to cook the food.
Speaker 4 00:15:59 There were a lot of people who thought, you know, we can't do this. We don't have a kitchen. We can't cook. We can't prepare meals. We don't have the staff for that. So we make sure they know they don't have to cook the food. Uh, we let them know that, as you said, this is a U S D a program. Everything gets reimbursed. And if you have the sponsor, they'll, they're usually able to take care of all of that payment up front. You don't have to, uh, come up with any money for this program, really beyond a little staff time. And that there's very little paperwork. Once we got past those three hurdles, people seem to just open up and they're like, wow, we really can do this. So on a, so honestly we've spent five years saying those three lines to as many people as we can.
Speaker 4 00:16:48 <laugh> one of our other, uh, things we like to say is that we'll talk to anyone and everyone, uh, whether they want to talk to us or not, because we've also discovered that repetition is the key. So a lot of people have just heard us give these talks over and over and over. As I recall, it took me three to five years before I started team bids to get involved in food, programming myself, uh, where things changed with COVID for us. Uh, we had to figure everything out again, there were no conferences anymore. So we had to learn how to do a podcast. And we started reaching out to any number of our partners. We talked, uh, we've had you on at least one or two of our podcasts. We've talked with children's hunger Alliance we had. So we had to learn new ways to get the message out to people.
Speaker 4 00:17:41 And we had to learn new ways to encourage them to do what we call embedded librarianship, where the librarians are going out into the community to find the partners. Uh, one of the things I lucked out on very early is my community has a group called the community coalition. And that's a group that just talks about what the needs of the students in the school district are. So I went in and I was sitting on that board. And so I had made a lot of connections in the community through that. And when COVID came around, I was able to go and reach out to any number of churches and other groups as the waivers came into effect. And then instead of just the library, which we like so many others, our doors were closed. We were doing some very limited service, but we were able to partner with a couple of churches and with the community center.
Speaker 4 00:18:38 And we were able to help set up, I think, four or five different sites throughout the community. And we were able to coordinate with those sites to, um, vary the serving times and days so that we could hit more people. When, you know, parents don't have to bring their kids. They can come to this site during a lunch break. If they're working, if they can't get away during a lunch break, maybe they could hit this other site in the evening one day. So we tried to provide as many opportunities in our community for people to come in and to get those meals. Since then, we've still just been going around trying to get people involved in other types of programs, like, uh, the rural food package programs, I think, what are they called? Senior boxes. And so, yeah, now that things are opening back up, we are trying to encourage our partners to meet needs in new ways, because I don't, I don't think any of our sites that we created during COVID are still eligible, which is very sad. We have people reaching out to us every day, going, you know, what can I do now? You know, I still have to feed my kids. So, you know, we're trying to put new programs together without the U S D a backing.
Speaker 2 00:19:56 Great. So how many libraries do you Del in Ohio are involved in summer food service
Speaker 4 00:20:05 Before COVID? Yeah, uh, it was a large and growing number. Janet Ingram Dwyer from the state library keeps track of some of this information mm-hmm <affirmative>. And before COVID started libraries represented, I think 11 or 12% of all the summer food service sites in the state, I think, uh, maybe Marysville was one of the largest single sites mm-hmm <affirmative> and they were written up with another library, I think in Virginia and the New York times a couple years ago. So, um, libraries are definitely a good partner and they're definitely stepping up to the plate, uh, with this need.
Speaker 2 00:20:47 Great. So let's kind of talk more about during the pandemic. What would, what did you feel as far as your organization, the positives and the negatives of the waivers and, um, the changes that happened within your organization because of COVID and specifically to summer, uh, Diana, do you wanna go first?
Speaker 3 00:21:10 Sure. I would say the positives is that we could have Mo mobile units. We could have an instant mobile unit due to the fact that the waivers gave us the opportunity for grab and go multiple meals, parental pickup. So, um, us being able to, you know, use those waivers to, to get out to the children, knowing that they couldn't get to the libraries or that the libraries, you know, were not as, as accessible as they had been in the past. There was a lot of drive up. A lot of our local libraries did drive up pickups. So they were hand in out books and DVDs and meals all at the same time, which was kind of a great thing. They knew what time it is. Um, the being able to give multiple meals when we took, when our sites could, you know, do it, um, and had the room to hold it.
Speaker 3 00:21:55 And, um, I think that just looking at, you know, the area eligibility percentage drop it really, like Shane said, we have sites that we can't, we can't accommodate again this year, now that the waivers are gone and they were in those fringe areas, they were right on the edge. Um, one of our sites just as a little antidote is that on one side of the street is eligible on the other side of the street, they're ineligible and they happen to be on the ineligible side of the street. So how do you now explain to them that they can no longer give food to the same children who are gonna be coming from the eligible area, but because there is no way to, to map that correctly or the school system information isn't is, is above 50%. Now we no longer have that ability. So the three things would probably be our mobile, the multiple meals and the area eligibility being lower to give us those fringe children that we hadn't seen in the past.
Speaker 3 00:22:50 Um, those would, I think, would be the positives that we had from it, um, negative for us late notice from the government. I mean, we all, we're all gonna shake our heads and laugh about that. You get 10 days to change how you run a program. Um, and then they won't tell us when, whether they'll extend it. Um, something comes up, you know, in the state, how, uh, in the, in DC, and we get put to the end of the list on what we're gonna decide, um, clarity on some of those waivers, because we do run many different programs. Um, and after school at risk, we had to ask a lot of questions about that because it really was, and it was, there was kind of squished in the middle, down at the bottom. And luckily enough, we had help from our state, uh, specialists to make sure that we understood that.
Speaker 3 00:23:37 And you know, the other negative is bad timing, just bad timing from the us government. We all know that's not gonna change anytime real soon, but it is hard to try and change a program and run it within guidelines of what are we gonna do? Are we gonna extend, will we not extend? Um, so you have to plan two programs and then hope that when you train your sites, because we are a sponsor of a hundred sites, we have to have them all trained before we start, we have to decide which one we're gonna use, and then hopefully not have to change in the middle of, of the river, get off the horse and just start again. So those would be ours.
Speaker 2 00:24:19 Um, Shane, do you have anything to add?
Speaker 4 00:24:22 I would personally focus on the grab and go meals as one of the best, and I, I wouldn't call it best and worst, but, uh, it was sort of a double edge sword. We were able to reach so many more libraries when it became grab and go. It is so much easier on staff time because that's always the big, big deal. It's like we can't spare that many staff to watch a space. We don't have the space to sit kids down for meals. So with grab and go, we found ourselves talking to a lot more people who really wanted to get in, especially because of all the hardships around COVID. And just on a personal note, the only reason I would ever even consider that a drawback is there's a sense of community in eating a meal with other people. And that is so important for so many people, but I don't know that that necessarily outweighs the fact that we're able to get food to more people and with the other waivers at different times, that fit into their schedules. So again, I just think that the grab and go meals help everyone reach so many more people. And I would really hope that our, uh, representatives are taking that into account as they consider the, uh, what is it, the CNR, the child nutrition, reauthorization,
Speaker 2 00:25:44 Right. Uh, I think you both kind of touched on this, um, of the staffing issues. Um, I've been talking to several summer food service sponsors and sites that are not running this year, um, because they don't have people to serve the meals. And I don't know if you've heard that as well. Um, and I, I think that's one of the wave. I don't know if we could have a waiver for people that can't find staff. That would be wonderful. So I don't know if you've heard that as well, or if you have any other comments to add about that
Speaker 3 00:26:17 Here, here in Cleveland. Yeah. We've, we've heard that, that is, that is one of the, one of the reasons, um, besides, um, the area eligibility that people are not coming back. And I agree with Shane, our libraries are the ones that if I could have a special wand and get a waiver just for libraries, it would be the one that I would say grab and go is the best for, because we saw an increase in, in meals going out and, and staff time. I mean, uh, we do understand they have that, that same issue. Um, so I would agree with that, Shane.
Speaker 4 00:26:48 Yeah, we, the sites we set up just in my community, uh, my, my school district has a population of about 12,500 people. And over the course of the pandemic, we gave out over 25,000 meals. And I don't believe any of our sites had more than two people working a site at any given time. And some of those days I was involved with some of the sites more hands on in the early days while they were ramping up. And it was gangbusters. I mean, we were packing stuff into bags, running it out while one person would take attendance. And we were just tired by the end. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:27:32 Uh, switching gears a little bit, um, for people maybe that are listening that wanna be involved in summer. Um, do you have any suggestions for people that wanna a nonprofit out there that's thinking about, um, becoming a sponsor, uh, what's the best way to go about it? If you, uh, knew what you knew now, then what would you do differently?
Speaker 3 00:27:55 Uh, well, I would say talk to somebody who's already running the program, see what the good things are for them and, and the things that cause them any kind of grief or trouble, um, and, and create good relationships within your community so that you can talk to your local school district and others who are already running these programs, whether they're a sponsor or there's, or they're being sponsored by somebody so that, you know, what's going on in your community and you're not having overlap. And, um, if you don't, we have our own production kitchen. So I know we're a little different than a lot of people find a good vendor. Um, we are asked every day to vent for other smaller sponsors and sites. And, um, we are currently getting ready to move into a new kitchen. So that may be a possibility moving forward, but having a good vendor and knowing that they understand what you're doing, but first off, talk to somebody who's already doing it. A, you know, reach out to any food bank who has this in their, um, repertoire or even chain organization. They know what's going on. Um, they can help you with those ins and outs and what may, may or may not work for you.
Speaker 2 00:29:07 Thanks. I, I getting talking about vendors, I know I've talked to some, um, sites that have blended with their local colleges or universities or a good source. Um, your food bank. A lot of our food banks do have kitchens, even though they may not be a summer food service sponsor your meals on wheels. Uh, so any place that serves meals in the community, a lot of organizations are look looking to make a little more money, a little extra income revenue flow. So there you just kind of have to get out there and look around your community. Uh, Shane, do you have any, um, suggestions or, um, uh, ideas for people that wanna get involved?
Speaker 4 00:29:50 One of the things I've found is that the two, two of the best resources for finding out where the need is in your community, uh, are both at your local schools. If your school has a social worker and the person who is in charge of food service at the school, they usually have those answers. I have leaned very heavily on the social workers at the schools to find out, you know, where that need is, and then reached out to try to find partners in that area. Uh, you know, we're constantly learning new ways to get involved. It wasn't until COVID started, I realized that I could do what Diana was talking about, and my organization could go out into an eligible area and do the meals. I didn't, you know, I thought I had to register at a site and the site had to meet all of the qualifications that I wanted to do. So I think if you just reach out to find out where those needs are, and if you have questions, just get in touch with someone from like children's hunger Alliance or someone like Diana who has more information about what it takes to be eligible and get the work done. It's a lot, it's a lot easier than it sounds when you're trying to do it all on your own, in a vacuum.
Speaker 2 00:31:18 Great. Um, just one final maybe question, or if a comment from everyone about what is your long term dream, if you could be king for a day, summer food king for the day or queen, um, what would you love to see happen with the program, Diana?
Speaker 3 00:31:41 Um, I would say if I, if I, yes, if I could be queen for the day, I would have grab and go at all library locations. So shame, sorry. I took yours probably on that one. <laugh> um, and to enhance mobile delivery into rural areas and just within any area, um, grab and go would enhance a lot of, uh, programs that could go out into the community and actually find where the children are and through the school system or all of, or, or social workers like Shane was mentioning before. And my second on that one, if I could be for a day, I would have them reduce the area eligibility to at least 40%. So we can find those fringe, fringe, children who are right on the edge and, and every day we're learning, you know, being in a food bank, we're just like everyone else, food keeps going up and there, you know, costs just keep going up and fuel keeps going up.
Speaker 3 00:32:37 So we are constantly battling the same thing that our neighbors are battling, but we wanna make sure that everything is still free. And maybe being able to give those families who are right on that fringe a little bit more security in, in their daily life, by being able to have these meals for their kids during the summer, or even throughout the school year. You know, because especially during the summer, they're feeding them breakfast and lunch, which they're not used to doing. And that is, you know, you have a 13 year old that can eat twice as much as any one of us. Um, and we know how much that costs these days. So those would be my two things if I could be queen for a day.
Speaker 2 00:33:12 And, uh, Shane, do you have anything to add?
Speaker 4 00:33:16 Oh yeah, I had to, I had to start thinking quick. She, she did steal my idea there.
Speaker 3 00:33:20 I'm sorry, Shane. You can say it. It's
Speaker 2 00:33:22 Okay. That's a good one.
Speaker 4 00:33:24 What I would love to do, if I could wave that magic wand is out in those fringe areas. You're talking about just boom, food, trucks, style delivery meals on wheels, style delivery, to those people who can't get in and are in an area where you can't set up a site because there's like one, maybe one kid out in this area and there's two or three kids over here and they're just impossible to hit. Otherwise. I would love to be able to do, you know, like a, a food truck delivery system where those kids can get meals delivered to them. If they can't get to a more local site, I'm not sure what else I would do, but just being able to reach those kids who are absolutely stuck and still have that need.
Speaker 2 00:34:12 Yeah, I, I would add, I would love to be able to mail those boxes out to those kids if there are only 20 kids in an, um, area or something like that. But, um, yeah, if I were queen for the day, I I'd love to be able to have people. I, I don't have anything against summer food, the traditional, um, model, but it doesn't work for everyone. I think it's great for kids to come in and, you know, um, socialize with other kids read, you know, it helps with all those type of things, but it doesn't help those kids that, you know, can't get to those sites. So I would love to be able to have some sort of hybrid thing, you know, like everyone's saying, can you do a grab and go, or can you do both kids eat or the kids that can't stay, grab and go. So I think we're all in agreement on there that the, uh, system is old antiquated and isn't meeting the needs of kids today. So if you, if you are looking for a summer site, you could go to the Ohio department of education website and they have a list and there is also a number to text. So I wanna thank, uh, both of you for joining us. And I think this was a great conversation and, um, I wish you all good luck this summer. So thanks a lot.
Speaker 3 00:35:33 Thank you. Thanks for having
Speaker 0 00:35:34 Me.
Speaker 1 00:35:42 Thanks to Carol for hosting this conversation and special, thanks to Diana and Shane for their time. And also for all they do each day to address childhood hunger and keep kids fed. We hope Congress will take up robust bipartisan child nutrition, reauthorization to address some of the longstanding issues that they highlighted and help more kids access the nutritious meals they need. In closing, I'll leave you with a finding from a recent survey, conducted a 500 parents that were receiving expanded monthly child tax credit payments. Before those payments were discontinued by Congress. The study found that nearly half of parents who used to get those payments now say they can't afford enough food to feed their families. We continue to call in our state and federal governments to work together, to do more, to keep kids and families fed every day. We'll talk to you next time.
