What are the positive factors that are contributing to you reaching your desired result?

•  Schools: When schools are open they provide food to kids for breakfast and lunch. In the summer, all kids can pick up lunch and sometimes even breakfast.
•  Access to food pantries in the county: Compassion, Northside Care Center, Salvation Army, etc. 
•  Churches and schools: provide backpacks for weekends and holidays. 
•  Public assistance: SNAP and WIC provide food for low-income families. 

What are the negative factors that are restricting you from reaching your desired result?

•  COVID-19: Loss of employment for families leading to loss of income. 
•  Citizenship: fear of signing up for public assistance and reaching out for help
•  Transportation: ability to pick-up food at schools during virtual learning
•  Rural county schools: small group of students, not offering school lunch supports remotely. 
•  Food deserts: places in rural areas where you can't walk to food. 
•  Locations where SNAP is accepted
•  Lack of resources to purchase food. 

What populations are the most disadvantaged and what causes these disparities?

•  Rural communities: food deserts
•  Non-english speaking
•  Low socioeconomic status-less funds, make choices between necessities
•  Grandparents raising grandchildren: lack of knowledge of eligible services to assist families

Are there foreseeable factors that will affect your work over the next few months to a year?

•  COVID-19: Continued job losses and uncertainty
•  Election year: potential change in administration
•  How many children will attend school in person this year?

What additional research is needed to better understand the factors that influence the slope of the curve and related disparities? 

•  Correlation between eligibility for free and reduced lunches and food insecurity
•  How many kids access free and reduced lunches out of thos who qualify?
•  How does COVID effect rates of eligibility next year?
•  How has being away from healthy meals at school effected child health?

Who are the partners that can help you reach your desired outcome? List partners and their roles.

•  Residents/Parents: Educated about their options
•  Early Childhood Coalition 
•  Schools
•  Churches
• Non-profits
• Doctors/healthcare providers: educating parents on healthy diet
• Social media
•  Texas A&M AgriLife programs

Research/Evidence-Based Practices:

•  Expanding free breakfast and lunches to all students
•  Food deserts: placing grocery stores in food deserts so people can access food
•  Expanding transportation: so families can get to grocery stores and other non-profit resources

Low Cost/No Cost Solutions:

•  Public Health Campagin: letting people know about SNAP and WIC and helping people get enrolled
•  Grocery delivery: waiving additional delivery fees or providing gift cards to families to get rid of those
•  Delivery to young families: similar to Meal and Wheels

Innovative/Out-the-Box Solutions: 

•  Community support: Allowing HEB/Grocers to sponsor families to provide food for weekends and breakfast
•  Supporting job training for parents so they can be employed
•  Provide ESL classes in schools to parents so they can ask questions and advocate for their families
•  Summer meals site food truck to go out to different sites.
• Partnering with churches to offer community meals and information about local resources. Engage Pastors to come as spiritual support. 

Additional Research:

•  For districts who have given free lunch and breakfast to all students, what was their costs for that and how did they pay for those?
•  How do other communities get grocery stores invested in providing food support to their students?
•  How do we engage local food pantries and congregations?