MUST Ministries seeks help feeding kids this summer: "We don't want to turn any child away"

School's out for summer, but the need for healthy meals hasn't gone away for thousands of metro Atlanta children. 

It's a scenario one Atlanta mom says she can't stop imagining herself in.

"It's hard to ignore, you know? And, you know, as a mom myself, it's hard to imagine being a parent in that situation," said Marin Kraushaar, executive director of the Georgia's Own Foundation.

Volunteers with Georgia's Own Credit Union spent Tuesday packing 500 meal kits as part of MUST Ministries' Summer Lunch program. Each kit contains five breakfasts and five lunches. The shelf-stable meals are designed to help families whose children lose access to school lunches during the summer months.

"We've got some electrolytes ... We have some main meal, some ramen, some noodles, some other mac and cheese type food," Kraushaar said.

The need behind Tuesday's effort is bigger than many realize. MUST Ministries says 20%, or 1 in 5 children in Georgia, are food insecure. The state also ranks fourth in the nation for childhood poverty and hunger, according to Katie Ruth Camp, the organization's vice president of marketing and public relations.

Last summer, MUST Ministries fed nearly 7,000 children each week and distributed more than 538,000 meals across eight metro Atlanta counties. This year, organizers say they're concerned not only about meeting demand but also about the rising cost of food.

"They do cost twice as much as they did probably a year ago," Kraushaar said.

MUST Ministries says it used to cost about $100 to feed one child for the entire summer. This year, that figure has climbed to $150 per child.

"That's why more funding is needed, more food is needed, because we certainly don't want to turn any child away," Camp said. "We want to be able to feed as many as we did last summer, even more."

Those interested in volunteering or donating to MUST Ministries' Summer Lunch program can visit here.