JACKSONVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District are teaming up on a summer nutrition program aimed at keeping students fed while school is out.
The school and the charity held a kickoff event on Thursday, featuring Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and education leaders.
Melissa Curtis, a mother of five, also came to the event to receive food for her children and said the program has been a big boon to her wallet.
“Grocery shopping is a struggle because of inflation and other things,” she explained.
Curtis said she often worried, especially during the summer, about where her children and others’ next meal would come from, but she no longer does.
“They provide breakfast and lunch, which is a lifesaver,” she said, adding that she used to spend $75 to $125 a week on food but now only has to focus on dinner.
The program was able to serve 15 families Thursday, but Clint Walker, JNPSD’s director of child nutrition, said they aim to serve 100 children per day.
“Currently, we have 4,200 children in our database from across the district. We feed over 1,000 meals a day, so that’s about 25 percent of our database,” he said.
Walker said they offer services at a total of seven locations across the district to ensure people in all areas can receive services.
“It’s really hard for parents to work and feed their kids, so they can’t have their kids eating cereal all day,” Walker said.
For more information about the summer meal program for Pulaski County students, including meal pick-up times, Visit PulaskiCounty.net.
