Public Libraries Are Giving Away An Insane Amount Of Free Food ▬ Shareable

Public Libraries Are Giving Away An Insane Amount Of Free Food

Lunch at the Library

Shareable:  9.29.2020 by Noah Lenstra

Across America, in major cities you’ve heard of and in countless places you most likely have never considered, public librarians are working with local, state, and national partners to bring food to those who need it during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Wait — librarians? 

Yes indeed.

And, when librarians distribute food, they do more than merely give it away. 

They also use the library’s myriad educational and lifelong learning resources to confront the food insecurity that all too many Americans struggle with every day. 

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In fact, libraries have a long history of food provision, from the victory gardens of World War I and II to today’s bumper crop of community gardens at libraries across North America. 

But the story runs deeper still. 

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Summer reading, summer eating

Since 2008, the number of public libraries in the United States feeding children and families during the summer months has skyrocketed. Innovative programs are flourishing from coast to coast. 

As these initiatives proliferate, funders, scholars, and policy makers take note. California’s Lunch at the Library inspired a series of peer-reviewed studies in the journal Public Health Nutrition, and received $1 million in supplementary funding from Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 to expand the program.  

=My research showed that in 2017, at least 1,546 public libraries distributed summer meals as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Feeding Program. Two years later, in 2019, data from the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service show that by 2019 the number of libraries serving summer meals had grown to above 2,000. 

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Food security all year long

Many of these summer feeding efforts at libraries are morphing into year-round food distribution programs.

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If you want to start a similar program where you live, the first step is to reach out to your local librarian. 

Then let Shareable know what you develop together!

Learn more:

Lunch at the Library

Team Vittles

Collaborative Summer Library Program

Food Justice in the Public Library: Information, Resources, and Meals
Noah Lenstra, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

Christine D’Arpa, Wayne State University, USA

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Grade Level: 11

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Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

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