{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Public Education Matters","title":"Hunger-Free Schools Ohio: Expand meal access for all now","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1525,"description":"School meals should be no different than textbooks or transportation services provided to all public school students; they are a basic need for children to learn in school. But, since the end of the pandemic-era programs that provided free school meals for all students in all districts, too many Ohio students are going without the meals they need. On February 20, the Ohio Education Association hosted a virtual press event on behalf of the Hunger-Free School Ohio coalition to call on state lawmakers to expand access to school meals for all. This episode contains excerpts from that panel discussion.\n\nLEARN MORE ABOUT HUNGER-FREE OHIO SCHOOLS| Click here for more information about the Hunger-Free Ohio Schools coalition's work and how you can get involved. \n\nWATCH THE WHOLE DISCUSSION | Click here to see the full virtual press conference that is featured in this episode, including more from the featured guests, questions from the media, and the message from Ohio House Finance Chair Rep. Jay Edwards on this issue.\nREAD THE WHITEPAPER| Click here to see the “School Meals Support Ohio Student Health and Learning” white paper from Children's Defense Fund-Ohio. \nFeatured Education Matters guests: \nScott DiMauro, Ohio Education Association President\nKatherine Ungar, Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio Senior Policy Associate who authored CDF-Ohio's recent white paper on the urgent need to expand access to school meals in Ohio.  \nLindy Douglas, Special Programs Coordinator, and Daryn Guarino, Director of Food and Nutrition for Alexander Local Schools in Athens County, where school lunch debt has more than doubled this year from pre-pandemic levels.  \nJosh Kauffman, principal at Bluffton Middle School in Allen County, where students held a bake sale to pay off their classmates’ school meal debt.  \nMeg Thompson, a parent in the Wellington Exempted School District in Lorain County whose family was denied assistance to access nutritious school meals for their children after benefiting...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/qLU1HXpO0BWjHZ9wsRqLDb3niD3HIo0pJs38nc-jHtg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE3NTcwLzE2OTEw/ODIxNjctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}