JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It can be easy to forget that the joys of summer vacation also bring uncertainty for many children about when they might get a nutritious meal.
According to Feeding Northeast Florida, 1 in 5 children in Northeast Florida goes to bed hungry. That’s more than 93,000 children who do not have enough food at home.
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And the struggle only grows in the summer months when children who rely on eating breakfast and lunch at school must find those meals elsewhere.
But one Jacksonville business wants to make things easier.
The Food Doctor food truck is at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and MLK Parkway, which is considered a food desert in Northwest Jacksonville.
The Food Doctor’s Summer Lunch Program, funded by donations and sponsorships, currently provides free lunches to an average of 60 children Tuesday through Friday.
But the owners say the need is even greater.
One customer recently bought $500 worth of meals for kids, and asked others to chip in what they can to pay it forward for the children.
To continue the program throughout the summer, the owners of The Food Doctor are asking for help from the community.
They want to expand the free meals for kids to Mondays, and they want to feed more than 75 kids a day, which means they need to increase their staff for the program.
The Food Doctor has a GoFundMe account where you can donate to the project. You can also head down to the food truck and tell them you want to sponsor meals for kids.
“Every donation, sponsorship, and meal purchased helps us continue serving local families and making sure no child goes hungry this summer,” the owners wrote on GoFundMe. “Together, we can feed our kids and strengthen our community one meal at a time.”