Oside library helps tackle food insecurity
A state program allocates funds for programs, while community partnerships deliver meals to local kids as part of a summer program
OCEANSIDE — A food program through the city’s library has been a force and a much-needed respite for thousands of residents.
The Oceanside Lunch at the Library has doubled its reach from 2023 to 2024, according to Lisa Ferneau-Haynes, senior librarian of youth services. The city partners with the Boys and Girls Club of Oceanside, Oceanside Unified School District and Feeding San Diego as those three entities distribute food to school children during the summer months to address food insecurity.
Additionally, the city uses grants from the California State Library to fund programming and interns, she said. Ferneau-Haynes said the program strives to deliver healthy food and engaging activities for kids, many of whom who live in food deserts, whose families struggle to afford healthy food and who qualify for free meals during the school year.
Lunch at the Library is a bridge program from the end of the school year to the beginning of the next year. The program runs Monday through Friday from the Monday after the last day of school through mid-August, she said. However, the library is partnering with the Boys and Girls Club to launch an after-school meal program in October.
“It was phenomenal,” Ferneau-Haynes said. “Just to have the opportunity to have conversations with the kids, meet their families, have conversations with their families and kids got to meet each other in a comfortable way is just a little bit of magic.”
The Oceanside program began in 2017 to help address the summer months for kids in need of food outside of the school year, she said. OUSD wanted to provide meals to the community but struggled to get people to come to the schools, so they partnered with the library.
The program kicked off at the Civic Center Library and has since expanded to other locations. In the first year, the library served about 2,000 meals, Ferneau-Haynes said.
Another part of the program was to include activities for the kids such as story time, jump ropes and hula hoops, to name a few. The program hit pause in 2020 due to the pandemic and pivoted to handing out books and other materials to keep kids busy at home, Ferneau-Haynes said.
“There’s no stigma for families to go to the library,” Ferneau-Haynes explained. “There are economic issues and food deserts. Families looking for nutritious, healthy produce and good meals for their kids has never gone away. There are still so many families experiencing food insecurity.”
Anita Morales, a librarian of youth services, said the program’s growth has been steady over the years, although this year saw a massive increase. She said last year the program served more than 3,800 meals and this year the number spiked to more than 6,600.
Lunch at the Library serves kids 18 and under as mandated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she said.
The library also partnered with +Box Distributions (Plus Box), a nonprofit providing free produce boxes every Thursday at four locations — the Civic Center, Mission Branch and John Landes Community Center libraries and Joe Balderama Park. Morales said 1,925 boxes were distributed this year and on some occasions running out of boxes in five minutes.
The library also hosts with Farm Cart Science in partnership with Yasukochi Family Farms, who delivers fresh fruits and vegetables each Monday so the kids can learn about how they grow. The kids also get to munch on the fruits and vegetables, Morales said.
Also, Studio ACE and Community Roots Farm provide programming with arts and crafts, teaching about the anatomy of plants and how to grow their own seeds.
Another element of the library’s partnerships came with the Boys and Girls Club of Oceanside’s culinary program.
“They actually cooked the meals to distribute them out to the community,” Morales said. “It was great food they provided us. All the meals came with a side of fruit and vegetable and milk. It was always warm and healthy and nutritious for the kids. The kids really enjoyed the meals.”
In May, librarians across the state, along with others, were shocked by the preliminary state budget from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lunch at the Library was cut from his budget as Newsom cut billions to address a nearly $50 billion budget shortfall, according to the California Library Association.
Lunch at the Library had an annual allocation of $5.5 million for the CSL to allocate to library systems statewide. However, the legislature approved annual funding of $3 million but slashed the California Library Services Act by 50%.
“Essentially, the legislature felt that the Governor’s $5.5 million cut/elimination would be devastating for this popular program which serves lunch to children and teens during the Summer months,” the CSL said in a May statement.