Use of Maine’s after-school meals program increased 89 percent between Oct. 2018 and Oct. 2019. That’s according to a new report from the Food Research and Action Center.
Maine’s percentage increase was the second-highest in the nation, after Wyoming.
Anna Korsen, with the child nutrition organization Full Plates, Full Potential, says one big reason for the increase is a new law that mandated communities start an afterschool meal program if 50 percent or more kids are eligible for free or reduced school meals.
“LD 577 became public law in Sept. 2019, and we saw a lot of growth, as you can see, through that law,” she says.
Korsen says the growth between 2018 and 2019 likely doesn’t represent an increase in need, but rather that communities were able to fill a need that was already there.
“A lot of hard work that we had started last year in partnership with schools across the state, and community organizations, and the Maine Department of Ed, it really paid off,” she says.
This year, because of the pandemic, experts say the need is likely to grow by up to about 40 percent.
