will school may be out for most kids across the state but in Camden summer learning is just getting started summer school is open to all students in the city whether they fell behind this year or just want to fill in the gaps left by pandemic learning loss with an added incentive though access to free healthy meals that many families struggle to provide once class is out Ted Goldberg spoke to school leaders about the changes they're seeing by keeping kids engaged year round Don Asia Burns is starting summer school in Camden this week two Health classes separate her from starting cosmetology school I did have a year at one point where I did lose motivation so I stopped coming um so you know I had to make up for that she's far from alone more than 700 Camden students are making up for classes they fail during the year or taking enrichment classes to avoid learning loss the summer learning slide loss is something that isn't a new phenomena it was true when you and I were in school and continues to be true it has been exasperated of course by the pandemic but it is critically important that our students have those ongoing learning opportunities throughout the summer to avoid any gaps in their learning and in the educational process Wednesday marked the first day of summer sessions and a celebration of Camden's Food Service program which provides three meals and a snack every day for free to anyone in Camden who's 18 or or under we want to make sure that always during the summer students have the same nutritional access and opportunities as they do from September through June I'm so glad that we are able to do this here in the district and work with so many different sites because we serve breakfast lunch dinner snack and brunch during the school year and just because it's summer doesn't mean that our students don't need to eat anymore so we want to make sure that we continue with that food access throughout the summer District employee Emma Thurman spent the morning giving out free crates of locally grown produce this is a cabbage um we have some blueberries these were grown in Hammonton New Jersey for me it's like so surreal for me to be able to be a part of a program that was available to me when I was a student the senior director of Camden School nutrition program is our lethia Brown she hopes more people in the city take advantage of this service which is managed by federal and state programs with some Partners in the private sector awareness is what we're trying to do here with our kickoff I think that more folks Community folks they may not really be aware that's why we're trying to get the word out that's why we're partnering with great media folks to help us support to expand the word and let folks know that these options are available you got to know that we have students in the state of New Jersey that are homeless but not everybody in Camden knows about this program so the American Dairy Association is bringing out some folks to help raise awareness including Renee here and former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Avant we all want to do the best we all want to be the boss we all we want we all want you know the best ourselves and when you come into situations in life that happen that sometimes are just out of our control and to hear people and to know that there's people helping with no judgment and that want the best for you is is always comfortable let everyone know that it's nothing shameful about asking for help and there is a place to providing meals for according to feed America one in 10 children in New Jersey are facing hunger even as programs like this make it easier for people to feed their families in Camden I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news