Kern County in the Central Valley of California is one of the breadbaskets of the world. They grow and export grapes, almonds, fruits, potatoes and other crops that feed millions of people.
“We’re surrounded by food every day,” explained Jasmin LoBasso from the Kern County Public Library. “However, our community isn't necessarily thriving in that environment.”
Many of the families living in the county work as pickers in agricultural fields where they get paid based on how much they pick, sometimes making less than minimum wage. Some live in multi-family households and are wary of receiving government assistance because of their immigration status. On top of this, towns like Delano, Wasco and Arvin are located in food desert areas, where the nearest supermarket can be miles away.
LoBasso witnessed some of the challenges families faced when a mom came rushing to pick up a meal for her family at the Arvin branch library. The mom explained that she often had difficulty getting food for her kids because of her restrictive work schedule as a picker.
We often don’t think of libraries as places to eat. But, since 2014, Kern County Public Library has become a place for children to find the meals they need.
The idea started as a pilot of the California Library Association. Kern County joined in the second year of the program and has seen huge success.
“We learned really quickly that tying lunch services into library locations is very beneficial for both school districts, the library and then also the community,” LoBasso said. “We can encourage people to sign up for summer reading, get their library card and check out a book while they’re there.”
The program serves meals during the summer months and, during the coronavirus pandemic, they provided additional meals for weekends at grab-n-go sites. Recently, they also expanded to afterschool meals during the school year.
Families love the program. Kids come running out of the cars excited to get lunch and participate in the enrichment activities. The staff at the library feel like celebrities with families taking pictures with them and expressing gratitude in any way they can.
“There was one family that was particularly touching,” LoBasso shared. “They said that if it weren’t for the program, they wouldn’t have been able to feed their kids. They were incredibly thankful, because this family had six kids.”
Kern County Library received the No Kid Hungry’s Promising Practices to End Rural Child Hunger grant, an effort to support nine organizations and allow them to collaborate on best practices to provide meals to kids in rural communities.
They have focused the funds on promoting the program through a successful direct mail campaign, building up their enrichment programs and purchasing equipment like coolers and fridges to better store meals for kids.
“Prior to 2021, libraries were not necessarily receiving funding beyond summer to provide food services,” said LoBasso about the grant. “It gave us the push that we needed to move forward and try.”
Kern County Library is also sharing their model with other rural organizations. Through the grant, they are connecting with the Lowcountry Foodbank in South Carolina, which is expanding meal distribution sites to libraries in their communities.
1 in 6 kids in America could still be living with hunger. Join us to support organizations like Kern County Library finding new ways to ensure kids in rural communities have the meals they need to thrive.
