By Danny Federico Riverbend News
The Hamilton County School District (HCSD) joined the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty (BCHP) to deliver 51,720 meals during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, Dec. 1, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and key public and private organizations, BCHP announced it had served more than 38.7 million meals between March and August to more than 270,000 children impacted by the pandemic as part of the Emergency Meals-to-You (eMTY) program. In the Hamilton County area alone, 439 children were served from June through Aug. 15.
According to a press release, the eMTY initiative was an expansion of a regional pilot program that had previously served Texas households in 2019. Having been asked by the USDA to exponentially scale its meal delivery work to meet the needs of children in rural areas nationwide, the BCHP called on public and private partners to assist. Ultimately, their program grew from serving 475,000 meals to 4,000 students in Texas only, to serving a total of 38,783,700 meals to 270,483 children in 43 of 50 states, as well as in Puerto Rico.
"Hamilton County School District was one of four Florida counties to take advantage of this program," said Ida Daniels, Hamilton County Schools Food and Nutrition Services Coordinator. "There were 439 participants from 184 households receiving 2,586 boxes with 51,720 meals. A special thanks to UPS for making the home deliveries during the rain and as late as 9 at night."
For more information about the BCHP and how to support their continued efforts, visit www.baylor.edu/hungerandpoverty. The BCHP has also launched an interactive website with national eMTY service data, which can be found at www.baylor.edu/hungerdatalab.