STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A food truck offering free, nutritious meals to all Staten Island youth made its debut Monday after a year of community advocacy convinced city officials to finally include the borough in the annual program.

The New York City Department of Education‘s summer meals food truck program offers free meals to anyone ages 18 and younger during the summer to replace the meals they would be receiving at school during the academic year.

The truck is stationed on Victory Boulevard, adjacent to the Clove Lakes Park basketball courts, from Aug. 18 through Aug. 29, providing free breakfast and lunch seven days a week — Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on weekends, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo and Heather Butts, one of Staten Island’s leading advocates in the fight against hunger and food insecurity, celebrated the truck’s arrival on Staten Island with a community event at Clove Lakes Park.

The two were instrumental in securing Staten Island’s inclusion in the program, which previously operated in just three of the five boroughs.

“When we talk about food insecurity, a lot of times food insecurity does not necessarily have to do with money, it has to do with location or the accessibility of food. While we have a lot of free lunches being given out in our schools during the summer, most of the other boroughs got this food truck, and Staten Island did not get this food truck,” said Pirozzolo, a Republican who represents Mid-Island.

“If you think about schools that are serving these meals, a lot of children have to take school buses to school because they’re not really next to a school. So this certainly helps, bringing healthy foods into our parks, onto our streets,” he added.

Butts, who serves as chair of the Staten Island Hunger Task Force and co-founder and executive director of H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths, discussed the importance of continued advocacy to ensure that the program’s presence on Staten Island, which is currently being piloted for a limited time, is made permanent.

“This is here for 11 days from Aug. 18 to Aug. 29, but in the other boroughs it is there for eight weeks. So we want to turn this from a pilot program into an entire eight-week program, so we need help and for people to come out and support it and utilize the services,” Butts said.

Dr. Ginny Mantello, director of health & wellness for the Staten Island Borough President’s Office, spoke about the importance of efforts like these to combat food insecurity, citing a study conducted by the Staten Island Performing Provider System which found that up to 40% of families on the borough’s North Shore struggle with food insecurity.

“There are tens of thousands of families on Staten Island and millions of families across the country that are experiencing food insecurity. We know that since the pandemic, this has been rising and continues to rise. We also know that the high cost of food and the rising cost of food has made this even more difficult,” Dr. Mantello said.

She went on to discuss the various short- and long-term effects hunger can have on children, including developmental delay, academic problems and behavioral issues in the short-term and chronic diseases, like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in the long-term.

“We know that during a school year, sometimes those two nutritious meals that a child gets in school are perhaps the only meals they get, so this is critical to have this truck here,” said Dr. Mantello.

The Staten Island Children’s Museum was among the various local organizations on hand for Monday’s event, with cooking instructor Becky Frisher providing a hands-on demonstration for children, teaching them to safely chop vegetables and put together a salad.

Frisher, who has spent the last decade teaching children healthy eating and nutrition, stressed the importance of providing hands-on cooking experience, as she’s found children are more likely to try new fruits and vegetables if they had a hand in preparing them.

“Kids are more prone to eating the foods that they’re actually cooking is what I’m seeing more nowadays. Kids are usually in front of their iPads and in front of the TV where they’re not able to be hands-on, so they really need this. This is something that I notice a lot of kids tend to flock to,” Frisher said.

Other local organizations on hand included H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths, which distributed bags of fresh produce from its mobile pantry, Community Health Action of Staten Island, which conducted free blood pressure screenings, and New York Nature Mobile, which provided educational wildlife programming.

Free summer meals

The Free Summer Meals program serves as a crucial lifeline to thousands of New York City families, as rising grocery costs are making it increasingly difficult for parents to provide healthy, nutritious meals.

A recent poll conducted by No Kid Hungry found that 86% of New Yorkers feel as though the cost of food is rising faster than their income, and 53% said their debt has increased in the past year due to the cost of food.

More than half of all respondents, 52%, said their physical health has suffered due to the cost of food, while nearly two-thirds, 63%, said their mental health has suffered.

In addition to the food truck stationed at Clove Lakes Park, those looking for free summer meals can visit one of the following 18 brick-and-mortar locations across the borough.

• CSI High School for International Studies, New Springville — 100 Essex Drive
• Curtis High School, St. George —105 Hamilton Ave.
• Bernstein Intermediate School (I.S. 7), Huguenot — 1270 Huguenot Ave.
• Prall Intermediate School (I.S. 27), West Brighton — 11 Clove Lake Place
• Totten Intermediate School (I.S. 34), Tottenville — 528 Academy Ave.
• Dreyfus Intermediate School (I.S. 49), Stapleton — 101 Warren St.
• Markham Intermediate School (I.S. 51), Graniteville — 80 Willowbrook Rd.
• Egbert Intermediate School (I.S. 2), Midland Beach — 333 Midland Ave.
• PS 18, West New Brighton— 221 Broadway
• PS 23, Richmond — 30 Natick St.
• PS 56, Rossville — 250 Kramer Ave.
• PS/I.S. 48, Concord —1050 Targee St.
• The Michael J. Petrides School, Sunnyside — 715 Ocean Terrace
• The Waverly Academy of Empowered Learners, Stapleton — 45 Waverly Place
• Faber Pool, Elm Park — Richmond Terrace and Faber Street
• Lyons Pool, Tompkinsville — Pier 6 and Victory Boulevard
• West Brighton Pool, West Brighton (Lunch only from 1 to 4 p.m.) — Henderson Avenue, between Broadway and Chappel Street
• Tottenville Pool, Tottenville — Hylan Boulevard and Joline Avenue

No Kid Hungry and the Free Summer Meals program are just some of the many organizations and initiatives working to combat hunger on Staten Island, a major issue in the borough highlighted in last year’s Advance/SILive.com series, Health and Hunger on Staten Island, which documented high rates of food insecurity, associated health risks and issues in accessing fresh produce.

Families can find a Free Summer Meals site near them by calling 311 or visiting the program’s website.