Thousands fed through feeding program
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 16, 2015 1:50 AM
More than 7,200 Goldsboro children enjoyed meals this summer as a result of the city's 13-week pilot summer feeding program, officials say.
An average of 500 children were fed per weekend day -- the program's maximum capacity, said Shycole Simpson-Carter, the city's community development administrator and the director of the program.
Initially, the program operated at Dillard Middle School and Wayne Academy, but organizers soon realized they had a problem. Fewer students were showing up than anticipated.
After the first four weekends the site was moved closer to areas that were more accessible for local families.
After the sites were moved to the ADLA structure on Poplar Street and Fairview Homes Community Center, attendance increased dramatically.
The city began its feeding program operation at the behest of the City Council, which requested that Mrs. Simpson-Carter form a committee to investigate the severity of child hunger in Goldsboro.
So Mrs. Simpson-Carter formed a committee that discovered that more than 8,000 children go hungry every day in Wayne County, roughly 25 percent of the total population.
Overall, North Carolina is tied with Louisiana as the No. 1 state in the nation in which children under the age of 5 who reportedly go hungry on a daily basis.
Most of these children receive free and reduced lunch while at school. The issue is weekends, holidays and breaks from school when that food is not available.
So, the city began working on developing a program to feed schoolchildren on the weekends from March 14 until June 7.
Officials partnered with Danny King of ADLA Inc. (A lot of Love, Direction and Affection), after sending out a request for qualifications and finding King to be most qualified.
"Those two sites ended up being the best places we could've picked," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "Both sites are right in major housing development communities, and were in areas where we know the majority of the residents were low or very low income."
During the first weekend, the city served 478 meals in-house and had 356 take-out plates.
The need became obvious when the volunteers watched how fervently children ate.
"There was a little girl, I know she couldn't have been more than 7 years old, she was very, very small, and it was a weekend when we served hot dogs, beans and other things, and she had four plates," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "I don't mean she had four hot dogs. I mean that second time she came back for a plate she asked for two hot dogs, and the third trip back she had one, but the fourth time she came up she had two again. I mean she was very small, and she cleaned her plate. She was so hungry. We saw so much of that. We saw kids have their two plates of food, then come up and ask for a take-out plate, and they would be eating their take-out plates as they walked out the door."
Growing up as a child in a family that also struggled, Mrs. Simpson-Carter said knowing those children had had enough to eat that day was rewarding -- and brought back bad memories.
"It felt so good for me to see that, because in every kid that came and ate and wasn't hungry anymore, I saw me or my siblings in their faces," she said.
Even though many people supported the project, others challenged the expenditure, questioning the need.
"For those people who felt like this program was not needed, I would encourage them to really look at who it is they're saying they don't want to help -- I mean, these are children," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "A lot of people said we shouldn't be using taxpayer money to feed hungry children, but after I talked to them and gave them the statistics, not all, but some of them came around and said, 'OK, I can understand that.'"
The majority of the community rallied around the cause, with many volunteering to serve food and operate the sites each weekend. Many residents even stepped up to donate to the cause after hearing what it was about.
"I had a lady that called me and told me, 'I don't have much, but I remember how hard it was for my family growing up and I just want to send a $50 check,'" Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "I told her, and I told the volunteers on our sites, that it really touches my heart that people reached out to us to help us make this a success, because I was one of these children."
Mrs. Simpson-Carter said children have an increased need for access to food, and that the city will be planning future programs to continue their aid to hungry children.
"All I can tell you is, until you've experienced hunger yourself -- and I'm not just saying that as an adult, I'm saying that as a child who was hungry -- when you have no way, or feel you have no way of getting food, it's an awful feeling," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "An adult that's experiencing hunger, they have the ability to go take themselves to shelters or community soup kitchens or fill out an application for food stamps, but a child does not have that ability unless they go to people and beg for food. That's actually a reason I found, during my research, that children join gangs. That's one of the ways of bringing children in. They tell them, 'We'll feed you, we'll clothe you, we're family, and in turn you join our gang and do what we tell you.' So, nobody should want to see a child hungry. A child should not be made to suffer. I was glad that council understood that, and got behind the cause and pushed it, because a lot of councils are cutting, or they talk of the whole fiscal-responsibility thing, it was nice to see they let their human compassion kick in rather than the cold, budgeting and financial side of them."
On the heels of the successful pilot feeding program, the city is firming up plans for a mobile food truck feeding operation, which would rove the city and go to where the children are. The city expects to be able to feed an average of 1,500 children per day.
The program is expected to start in September and continue through the duration of the school year, operating up to three evenings per week, but mostly on Saturday and Sunday.
A mobile food truck is being ordered from Premiere Food Trucks in Chapel Hill. After upfitting, it is expected to cost $80,000. Tthe city will use $30,000 from its Community Development Block Grant funds to help pay for the truck. The other $50,000 will be leveraged from other sources such as A lot of Direction Love and Affection, state grant funding and local corporate donations.
Mrs. Simpson-Carter said officials hope the mobile unit will allow the program to reach more children.