{"id":19873,"date":"2013-02-28T16:02:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T21:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=19873"},"modified":"2013-02-28T16:03:07","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T21:03:07","slug":"dinner-to-be-served-at-4-elementary-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=19873","title":{"rendered":"Dinner To Be Served At 4 Elementary Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four inner-city schools with the \u201chigh poverty\u201d moniker will add another level of nutrition for its students. The four schools will begin to provide free dinner, as well as breakfast and lunch for those who qualify.<\/p>\n

Last week, Hillsborough County School Board members approved the program as part of a national effort by anti-hunger organizations.<\/p>\n

The schools are: Just Elementary, Sulphur Springs Elementary, Potter Elementary, and Booker T. Washington Elementary Schools.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

All four of the schools chosen have a student population that is more than 95% low-income, as measured by the participation in the free or reduced lunch program. The schools offer tutoring, academic enrichment, and cultural programs after school, which keeps a large portion of their populations on campus.<\/p>\n

To qualify, students must be enrolled in both the school and after-school programs. Parents are not required to complete any forms for the children to receive the meals free of charge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Doretha Edgecomb, <\/strong>member of the Hillsborough County School District said, \u201cThis is a pilot program and it is important for us to support it. If our students are in need of being well fed so that they can be prepared better to learn, then it is important that we give this program a chance. No child should go to bed hungry if we can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Edgecomb<\/strong> further stated that the four schools chosen all have the after school ED Venture Program on campus that lengthens the school day and the students, teachers, and staff are already on campus. The program is being funded on a federal level, she said.<\/p>\n

Bread for the World, one national anti-hunger organization said a new analysis revealed that \u201cAfrican American children suffer more hunger and poverty than U. S. children as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly 30% of African American households with children are food insecure, and 27.6 live in poverty. The poverty rate for all children in Florida is 24.9%. However that number pertaining to African American children in Florida is 41.2%.<\/p>\n

The school district is able to offer the program as a result of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed by Congress in December 2010. It authorizes the service of after-school meals or dinners in all states through the Child Care Food Program.<\/p>\n

The program will go into effect early to mid April 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor Four inner-city schools with the \u201chigh poverty\u201d moniker will add another level of nutrition for its students. The four schools will begin to provide free dinner, as well as breakfast and lunch for those who qualify. Last week, Hillsborough County School Board members approved the program as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}