Meals on Wheels

In an effort to increase Summer Meals participation in New York City, the NYC Department of Education and Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization, have teamed up to bring lunches to children. Starting in mid-July, a mobile feeding truck has been traveling throughout the five boroughs, bringing meals to children.

The converted delivery truck, which has a sink and cold storage in the back, has been serving between 200 and 300 lunches a day, said Eric Goldstein, chief executive for school support services, NYC Department of Education. The pre-packaged meal consists of a cold sandwich or salad, fruit and milk.

The truck makes stops at New York City parks. Goldstein said the department has worked with the city’s parks department to advertise dates when the truck is delivering lunches. In addition to serving lunches, the truck’s two employees set up an eating area at the parks.

Goldstein and Josh Wachs, chief strategic officer with Share Our Strength, said a mobile feeding operation was a great strategy to reach additional children because of the large presence of food trucks already in the city. “We try to be really innovative here in our programs,” Goldstein said. “Of course you need partners to do something like this, so we are very lucky to have Share Our Strength.” Share Our Strength provided the funding for the mobile feeding truck.

“As part of our No Kid Hungry Campaign, we are very focused on closing the gap between those kids who are eligible to receive school meals and those who actually participate,” Wachs said. “In New York state, some 21% of families said that they had trouble affording food last year. Yet, at the same time, you have programs like the Summer Meals program, which provide free food, and are being underutilized.”

Wachs said that in New York state, less than a third of the students who receive free or reduced-priced meals during the school year participate in the Summer Meals program. “Our goal is to connect students to nutritious meals wherever they live, learn or play,” Wachs said.

Wachs said one of the biggest issues preventing children from participating in Summer Meals program is access. He hopes programs like the mobile feeding truck can help alleviate the problem.

“We have the largest Summer Meals program in the country,” Goldstein said. “Last year we did more than 7 million meals. During the past two or three years, we have been trying to expand the program by feeding at pools and parks. We are always looking at how we can grow our program with the goal of being where the kids are.”

So far, the mobile feeding truck has been a success, both men said. Wachs said he hopes the pilot can be expanded to other cities.