LaredoBuzz.Com

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner’s contest hopes to get more kids participating in summer food programs

 (Laredo, TX )  With 40% of children in Laredo, Webb County living in poverty, City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas knows how challenging it is for local families to provide food for their children in the summer months, when school breakfast and lunch programs also take a vacation.  But thanks to the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Programs, those food programs will continue for free throughout the next few months in Laredo. 

 And to make sure that as many kids as possible participate in the food programs, TDA Commissioner Todd Staples has issued a challenge to mayors across the state, encouraging mayors to help promote the programs in their communities.  Mayors can win cash awards for their city based on their efforts to increase community participation and awareness of the Summer Nutrition Programs.  HEB has once again agreed to donate generous cash awards for the top three Mayors Challenge finishers.  

 “While I would love to win this contest to bring money to our community to help address issues related to the neediest in our community, the most important aspect of this initiative is to get more kids to attend these breakfast, lunch and snack programs in Laredo,” said City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas.  “If we can feed our kids, then this contest will have been worth it.”

 Last year, only 11% of the children eligible for free breakfast and lunch programs in Laredo participated in the summer programs.  Mayor Salinas has embarked on an aggressive campaign to get more kids – children and teenagers up to 18 years and younger – to participate in the free meals program.

 First thing tomorrow, Friday, July 1, 2011 (weather permitting), City of Laredo employees, Sister City Youth Committee and interns will distribute 10,000 fliers – 1,250 per district – in neighborhoods around food program sites to help promote the locations and times.

 He has already visited two food sites in Laredo:  the Laredo I.S.D. food-sponsored site at the Benavides Boys & Girls Club and the United I.S.D. food-sponsored site at the Lamar Bruni Vergara Boys & Girls Club.  While there, he encouraged students to not only keep going to the food programs, but also, to invite their friends, cousins and neighbors to attend, as well.

 At both locations, he told the kids to look up the location of the food sites on the internet at www.summerfood.org, or to simply call 2-1-1 to get those locations.   Additionally, Mayor Salinas donned a hair net and gloves and helped to feed the kids.  

 With assistance from students at St. Peter’s Memorial School, also an LISD-food program location, Salinas filmed a Public Service Announcement, in both English and Spanish, which will run on the City of Laredo’s Public Access Channels, and thanks to local media sponsors, KGNS and KLDO and their family of stations; KVTV and Time Warner Cable.  The PSA will also be posted to the City of Laredo website, under the Summer Food Program button on the main page.

 Social media has also been a big proponent of the program, posting the information on the City of Laredo Twitter account. 

 For the past month, the City of Laredo Health Department nine Women, Infant and Children’s Clinics throughout the area have been distributing the fliers – attached – of the locations and times of the Laredo food program sites.  A banner – promoting the summerfood.org website and the 2-1-1 information hotline has been hanging outside City Hall, as well.

 The mayor’s efforts have the support of the South Texas Food Bank, which recognizes that the summer food programs supplement their efforts to feed the community.