About This Episode

As school years end for America's children, hunger champions like Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) and food bank executive director Rhonda Chafin focus on providing summer meals. “There are some things you can live without. Food is not one of them,” McGovern says. He is working in Congress to extend school meal and SNAP benefits to ensure kids are fed year-round. At Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, Chafin oversees the delivery of summer meals to thousands of children living in very rural places. At Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, Chafin oversees the delivery of summer meals to thousands of children living in very rural places. “It is a variety of stories and unfortunate situations that put the child in the center of everything, and they just don't have the resources they need…They just don't have access to food. So that's the challenges and the scope. The scale of what we serve is about 3,000 square miles of some of the most mountainous rural areas in northeast Tennessee.”