WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- A new report released today by the Food
Research & Action Center (FRAC) reveals a drop in children
participating in the Summer Nutrition Programs following the loss
of pandemic-era waivers.
FRAC's Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition
Status Report finds that 170,926 fewer children benefited
from meals served through the Summer Nutrition Programs in 2023
compared to the previous year. Only 15.3 children received summer
lunch for every 100 who received a free or reduced-price school
lunch during the previous school year.
"The summer should be about play, adventure, and friends, not
rumbling stomachs," said Crystal
FitzSimons, interim president at FRAC. "Summer meals help
keep hunger at bay, so that children can enjoy their break and
return to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn."
When the school year ends, millions of children from households
with low incomes lose access to the school meals they rely on. The
Summer Nutrition Programs, also called summer meals, were designed
to replace school meals lost during summer vacation. These meal
programs play an important role in reducing childhood hunger during
the summer, and often provide important educational and enrichment
programming that combined keep children and teens well-nourished
and engaged.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, waivers allowed meal sites to
operate in all communities, and sites could offer meals that
families could pick up and take home off-site consumption. These
waivers were unavailable in summer 2023. Sites reverted to
pre-pandemic operations, and fewer children benefitted from
the Summer Nutrition Programs.
Without the waivers, summer meal sites must be located in areas
where at least half of the children are eligible for free or
reduced-price school meals or at least half of the children served
by the site must be eligible, which eliminates access to summer
meals in many communities with significant numbers of children who
rely on school meals during the school year to keep hunger at bay.
The only flexibility that remains is that sites in underserved
rural areas can offer meals to families for off-site
consumption.
Key findings from the FRAC report:
- Just over 2.8 million children participated in the Summer
Nutrition Programs on an average day in July
2023.
- Participation in summer lunch decreased by 5.7 percent in
July 2023 compared to July 2022.
- In July 2023, 15.3 children
received a summer lunch for every 100 who received a free or
reduced-price school lunch during the 2022–2023 school year.
- Participation in lunch in July
2023 was slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels: 30,533
additional children participated in July
2023 when compared to July
2019 (the last summer before the pandemic).
- Participation in breakfast in July
2023 was slightly lower than July
2022, with 287,096 fewer children participating in
2023.
To complement summer meals, the Summer Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT) Program, a new permanent program, launched this
summer.
Thirty-seven states, the District of
Columbia, all five U.S. territories, and two Tribes,
are participating in the new nationwide Summer EBT Program,
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Eligible families
will receive $120 in federally funded
grocery benefits on an EBT card for each school-age child who is
eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. By implementing
the program, these states, territories, and Tribes, are helping to
reduce childhood hunger during the summer.
"Maximizing the opportunities available this summer and beyond
will be critical to ensuring that children have the nutrition, and
the education and enrichment programming, they need to learn and
thrive," said FitzSimons. "Now is the time to recommit to ending
summer hunger, and more must be done."
FRAC calls on Congress to make summer meals more accessible,
including by making more communities eligible to provide summer
meals, allowing all sites to serve three meals (instead of two),
streamlining operations so summer sites can operate after school
and on weekends during the school year, and providing more funding
for summer programs, so that more children have access to the meals
and the educational and enrichment activities they need during the
summer to return to school well-nourished and ready to learn.
Read the full report.
Media Contact:
Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118
The Food Research & Action Center improves the
nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against
poverty-related hunger in the United
States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold
and equitable policy solutions. To learn more,
visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter),
Facebook, and Instagram.
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SOURCE Food Research & Action Center