Full Plates Announces Summer Grants
35 Summer Sites Receiving More Than $75,000 Total
Justin Alfond, Full Plates Full Potential’s Co-Director said “For children living with food insecurity, summertime is the scariest part of the year. There are so many more barriers in the summertime. Thankfully, these grants will help children access more meals for most of the summer.”
In all, 35 summer sites were selected and $77,540 was invested to help more children eat during the summertime. Grants range from $500 to $5,000 and fund sites from St. Agatha to Kittery.
“Our 2019 summer goals were two-fold – supporting the expansion of new summer sites and maintaining the good work of existing summer sites,” said Program Director Anna Korsen. “Our grantees are opening more sites, serving more days and marketing better to ensure that all kids in Maine have places to eat nutritious meals.”
“With the help of a Full Plates grant, we are excited to be expanding our program this year!” said Barbara Bonnell, School Nutrition Director for RSU 18 in the Oakland area. “We will be opening new meal sites in areas where children live 10 miles or more from existing meal sites, as we know that transportation is one of the biggest barriers for children to access food in the summer time…we need to make sure we reach those kids.”
Maine Summer Food Sites: In 2018 the State of Maine had 450 open sites in all sixteen counties. Last summer Maine summer meal programs served 727,610 meals making the state in the top ten best summer programs in the county. Final 2019 sites and number of meals will be reported by the Maine DOE in mid-June.
You can find out more about Full Plates, Full Potential by going to their website: www.fullplates.org.
Ray Richardson is the host of the Ray Richardson Show on WLOB Radio. He has authored three books, written a newspaper column for over a decade and is a contributor to Richardson Magazine.
Ray lives with his wife of 34 years, Dee Dee, in Westbrook Maine. They have four grown children (8 when you count the spouses), and blessed with one granddaughter.
