Central Minnesota's growing efforts to feed hungry children over the summer

It’s 1 p.m. at the eastside Boys & Girls Club in St. Cloud and the kids start to line up for food.

On Wednesday, around 30 children passed through the club’s kitchen window, scooping up bags of Cool Ranch Doritos, plastic containers of applesauce and little house-shaped cardboard milk cartons.

It’s one of two free meals the club started serving last week, the first days of summer — a time when many kids in St. Cloud and beyond go hungry.  

Later that night, there’s dinner. Michelle Dalton, a cook at the club, is planning a meal of eggs and waffles, with a cauliflower-broccoli mix and fruit combo. She’s expecting around 50 kids to come.

“We’ve been getting more and more kids coming in,” said Dalton, 32, who’s been with the organization for about a year.

That’s a trend advocates are seeing across Minnesota as more children struggle to find consistent, healthy meals during summer break without a daily school lunch. And as need grows in Central Minnesota, local organizations are expanding efforts to help.

'A huge need' for summer meals 

There are just under 80 sites in St. Cloud where free meals are provided this summer. That’s up from around 40 sites only two years ago.

St. Cloud has the third most sites in the state participating in the summer meals program, a federally funded effort administered by the Minnesota Department of Education. The city trails only Minneapolis and St. Paul, which combined have around 400 sites.

That’s because St. Cloud has more and more kids in need, said Aimee Minnerath, marketing manager for the Boys & Girls Club of Central Minnesota.

Nearly 62% of students in St. Cloud area public schools are eligible for free and reduced lunch. Some schools, like Lincoln Elementary, have more than 90% of students on free and reduced lunch.

“There is a huge need to make sure that our kids are fed ,” Minnerath said. “That need continues to rise over the years.”

The Boys & Girls Club started offering summer meals at one location in 2000.

Since then they’ve built three commercial kitchens and the club now operates at 14 sites throughout St. Cloud, providing at least one meal per day on weekdays.

Christine Kustelski said she’s seen “significantly” expanded summer food efforts during her more than two decades working at the club. And that’s a good thing.  

“A lot of the kids that kind of count on those meals and the families that count on those meals during the school year are left out during the summer,” said Kusteleski, unit director of the southside Boys & Girls Club of Central Minnesota.

Last summer, the club provided more than 112,000 meals and 213,000 snacks.

The summer meals program “kind of takes a little bit of burden off families and gives them another place where they can help get their kids fed,” Kusteleski said.

At some locations, more than 95% of the children qualify for free and reduced lunch.

And the program not only helps kids get enough food, Kustelski said, it also ensures what they’re getting is nutritious food.

“With a lot of our families it's not an issue of whether the kids are going to eat, it's whether they are going to eat enough or is it healthy,” she said.

However, there are still gaps when it comes to summer meals in St. Cloud.

The Boys & Girls Club, like many others, only serves meals on weekdays. That means children and their families are on their own for the weekend.

Though the club is looking to provide some weekend meals in the future, Minnerath said other organizations in the area are starting to step up to fill the weekend needs.

“We’re just thankful there are other organizations that are pitching in as well to make sure kids are fed,” she said. “These meal programs continue to pop up because the need continues to grow.”

Better access across the state

The summer meals program has ramped up across the state in recent years.

There are now more than 1,000 sites offering summer meals in Minnesota. That number has more than doubled the past decade.

JoAnna Lund, child hunger specialist with Second Harvest Heartland food bank, said the growth shows there’s likely more kids who need meals over the summer. However, she said there’s also more capacity to provide those meals.

“I do suspect the need has been getting worse over the past few years,” Lund said, but also “the increase in participation is reflected by an improvement in program offering and increased education around the program.”

However, Lund said there are still children who don’t get enough to eat over the summer.

She pointed out that between 9% and 15% of children from low-income families, those who could most benefit from nutritious summer meals, actually use the program.

“There's still a lot of individuals who are assumed to benefit from the  program who are not benefiting from it,” Lund said.

That’s because of a variety of factors, including lack of awareness about the program and stigmas about receiving free meals. For others, it’s a matter of proximity.

"It really comes down to how close the closest sites are and how kids are going to get there,” Lund said. Even five blocks away can be too far for children.

To qualify for the USDA’s program, 50% or more of public school students in the area need to be eligible for free or reduced meals. However, anyone 18 years old and under can use the summer meals program, whether they are in need or not.

Residents in rural areas and suburbs are more spread out, making it difficult to meet that threshold, Lund said. That results in fewer sites providing meals and ones that are farther away.

In St. Cloud, the more concentrated population is double-edged: It’s easier to set up sites, but there’s also a higher level of need, Lund said.

Around 30% of children in St. Cloud live in poverty, a jump from 21% a decade ago, according to five-year estimates by the American Community Survey. That’s significantly higher than the 13% of children living in poverty statewide.

Local nonprofit the Yes Network started providing summer meals around eight years ago. Now the program’s working in more than a dozen neighborhoods in St. Cloud, Waite Park and Sauk Rapids — and continuing to grow.

Jerry Sparby, executive director of the Yes Network, said the organization is working on adding a site in Melrose. That’s because he's seen the need continues to grow in Central Minnesota.

“We saw more and more neighborhoods asking for food,” Sparby said. “We’ve grown quite a bit.”