Since April, a coalition including Durham Public Schools, area restaurants, local non-profits, and municipal government has served more than 1 million meals to children and families in need. The summer “Durham FEAST” and fall “EAT NC” emergency feeding operations have invested more than $2.5 million into the local producer economy while supporting thriving-wage jobs. Facing a generational crisis, Durham has worked together to grow for each other.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a terrible trauma for our state and nation. It can also catalyze positive change. No Kid Hungry, a national non-profit dedicated to ending child hunger, estimates that, because of the pandemic and long-standing inequities, one in four children will face hunger this year. In North Carolina, where our children and seniors were the 5th least food-secure nationally prior to the pandemic, the need has never been clearer.
Feeding every child isn’t a question of finances, logistics, or technical capacity. It’s a choice schools, communities, and government must make. We have the resources we need to make sure every child can eat great food. Now, we must choose to secure this basic human right.
Schools play an essential role in addressing child hunger. Nationwide, three in four National School Breakfast and National School Lunch participants are eligible for free or reduced lunch by family income. For many of these children, school is the only place they can reliably find nutritious meals. In a Durham FEAST poll of 243 participants, 71% reported they “depended” on the meals, and 32% said a family member would have gone hungry without the service.
Schools alone cannot solve child hunger. North Carolinians can no longer ask administrators to choose between textbooks and lunches. North Carolina’s effective property tax rate of 0.86% is 20% lower than the national average. A one-tenth of 1% increase in local property taxes would more than cover the state’s entire “food budget shortfall,” as calculated by Feeding America. The increase would also keep the state well below the national average for property taxes, costing the average North Carolina homeowner 55 cents per day. These decisions must be made at the local level. If you want to live in a community where you know your neighbor has enough to eat, then tell your newly-elected officials you support ending child hunger with a one-tenth of 1% property tax increase.
Finally, while school meal reimbursement is a federal issue, state government also has an important role to play in supporting secure students, farms, and communities. The Durham FEAST and EAT NC feeding programs were made possible by the NC Restaurants Feeding Kids initiative, which empowered local restaurants to serve as school food vendors. The state legislature can build on this success in 2021.
First, North Carolina has already eliminated the reduced-price co-pay for breakfast. It’s time to do the same for lunch. Second, North Carolina should incentivize schools to purchase from the state’s farms. A pilot project in Michigan provides a $.10 reimbursement for every meal that includes state-grown fruits, vegetables, or legumes. Third, state policymakers should support technical assistance programs that help farmers get “GAP-certified,” increasing the number of farms that can serve schools.
No state is better positioned to lead on farm-to-school than North Carolina. North Carolina’s long growing season and robust local food infrastructure can be used to meet the longstanding need deepened by the pandemic. We can feed every child great food. We can support small and medium-sized farms at a time when they need it most. The election is behind us. Let’s govern for each other.