The Last Hope for Hungry Kids (afterschool programs providing food) [View All]

[MountainLaurel]

Score another one for "the greatest country in the world" :puke:

The budding tennis players at an after-school program in Southeast Washington used to be picky eaters, discarding their fruit or complaining if their sandwiches had strawberry jelly instead of grape.

Now, program director Cora Masters Barry says, they eat everything set in front of them -- and then some.

"They're eating two or three sandwiches and packing others in their backpacks," said Barry, who runs the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center on Mississippi Avenue. "What we have is never, never enough."

As the recession forces more families into poverty, a growing number of after-school programs have taken on a crucial but unfamiliar role as emergency food providers for the low-income children they serve. Organizations unaccustomed to serving anything more than granola bars are finding themselves to be the last line of defense against children going hungry at night.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052903130.html