By Kia Gregory

Summer is the hungriest time of year for children in the city, according to the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.

School is out, and tens of thousands of low-income students can no longer rely on school meals.

To fill the gap, on Friday Mayor Nutter announced the start of this year's free summer meals program. "When young people have empty stomachs," Nutter said, "it is harder to fill their minds with information and knowledge, and their days with constructive learning and play."

June 25: Mayor Nutter announces the start of Philadelphia’s summer meals program, with more than 1,000 community sites serving free meals

(Philadelphia)—No child should go hungry in Philadelphia this summer, with more than 1,000 sites serving free meals in low-income areas. Today, Mayor Michael Nutter kicked off Philadelphia’s summer meals program, which provides “Food That’s In, When School Is Out.”

BY Kerry Grens

Philadelphia's Congressional delegation is working to preserve the city's unique school lunch program. The 20-year system for feeding children is set to expire this year.

BY ALFRED LUBRANO
Inquirer Staff Writer 

Thousands of poor Philadelphia students could face the loss of free lunch if a new method of calculating eligibility becomes federal law.

Though the change could extend free lunch to students across America, it threatens a program unique to Philadelphia known as Universal Feeding, which allows more than 110,000 students in poor schools to eat free lunches without having to fill out applications.

UPDATE: In 2010-2011 state budget, legislators chose big tobacco over Pennsylvania families.

For the first time in nearly eight years, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly passed an on-time state budget. Unfortunately, the budget contained nearly $1 billion in cuts to services that help Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents, including literacy centers, child welfare programs and homeless services.

BY ALFRED LUBRANO

To survive in Philadelphia without food stamps or other government assistance, a family of four needs to make nearly $60,000 a year - a hard-to-fathom "sticker-shock" number that shows how expensive life has become.

According to a study being released Thursday, two adults with one preschooler and one school-age child have to take in $59,501 a year to live on a bare-bones budget in the city. In 2008, the same family of four needed $53,611 to make it in Philadelphia.

Support the Coalition Against Hunger and other hunger-relief agencies at this annual culinary event, featuring Philadelphia's leading restaurants.

Taste of the Nation Philadelphia is proud to announce its exciting 2010 line up of restaurants and other culinary participants. The efforts of their renowned chefs will help take a bite out of childhood hunger during the Taste of the Nation fundraiser at the Loews Hotel’s Millennium Ballroom on June 21.

by KYW’s Michelle Durham

Thousands of people packed the Art Museum area for a walk and run to fight against Hunger.

More than 316,000 residents in the area received help from a food pantry in 2009 and the number of people who need help is growing.

The 14th Annual 5K walk and run and it raises money for more than 100 Food pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies in our area like the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Mario Partee works there:

Congress must ensure that all children in the U.S. have access to year-round nutrition.

What is it?

by KYW's Karin Phillips

Demand is increasing for area soup kitchens and food pantries as organizers get ready for next month's Walk Against Hunger.

The 14th annual Walk Against Hunger happens on April 10th and can't come soon enough for hundreds of soup kitchens, food pantries and other feeding organizations who depend on the proceeds of the walk and run to fund their operations for the next year.