New Mexico Serves More Than 2 Million Meals To Low-Income Children Over Summer Break

STATE News:

SANTA FE — Gov. Susana Martinez announced Wednesday that the state served more than 2 million meals to low-income children over the summer.

The Children, Youth, and Families Department, through its partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides free nutritious meals during the summer months to children age 18 and younger.

“Making sure that New Mexico’s children have food on their plates every day is so important to their health and wellbeing,” Martinez said. “And sadly, when school is out of session, many of our kids no longer have access to the healthy meals they once relied on. That’s why I’m proud that our summer food program continues to feed our low-income kids who need it most – even when school is not in session.”

This summer, an average of 33,500 meals a day were served to New Mexico children through more than 600 meal sites located across the state. More than 565,000 of those meals were served in the Albuquerque metro area. Since 2010, Martinez has expanded the Summer Food Service Program, increasing the number of meals served by 7.5 percent.

New Mexico continues to be a national leader in providing meals to low-income children. The Food Research and Action Center has ranked New Mexico the No. 1 state in the country for serving meals to low-income children over the summer months. In addition to the summer food program, Martinez also has expanded the Breakfast after the Bell program, which allows schools to serve breakfast to kids who don’t make it to school in time to eat before class.

The summer food program is funded nationally by the USDA, which reimburses statewide sponsoring organizations for administering and serving meals at approved sites.

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