BLOUNTVILLE — A program that works to get nutritious meals to hungry students in the summertime plans to distribute food with a mobile pantry at Sullivan Central High School on Thursday.
The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee event is scheduled for 1 p.m. The agency’s mobile food pantry is stocked with items targeted for students in the Sullivan County school system who do not have access to healthy food and snacks, said Mary Beth Williams with Second Harvest’s Child Hunger Corps.
“The term we use is ‘food desert’ — where there is not a high concentration of affordable, healthy food options for families or there are no pantries within their particular area,” Williams said.
Williams said the pantry helps give students a source of food once they are dismissed for the summer, losing access to at least two square meals per day they received at their school.
The food bank says the need for additional groceries and food items for students has increased 12 percent in recent months, as 4,000 children in 15 school districts have been identified as “food insecure.”
Nearly 70,000 children were fed by 400 school pantry programs in fiscal year 2010, according to an agency study.
This will be the third mobile pantry stop this summer for Second Harvest. Nearly 240 individuals sought out food supplies at their last stop in June, said Williams.
The Sullivan Central High School PTSA organization was responsible for arranging the event. Parents and guardians must preregister to pick up food by calling Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee at 477-4053, ext. 226.