Summer meals reaching 1 in 13 low-income KY children

(BEREA, KY)- One in 13 low-income children in Kentucky who needs summer meals is receiving them, according to a new national report released this week. In July 2014, 26,305 low-income children received summer meals in Kentucky, a decrease of 1.1 percent from the previous summer.

The report, Hunger Doesn’t Take A Vacation, is an annual analysis of data by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). It measures the success of Summer Nutrition Programs at the national and state levels by comparing the number of children receiving summer meals to the number of low-income children receiving free or reduced-price school lunches during the regular school year – the school lunch data are a good proxy number for the extent of need in each state. By this measure, 7.5 low-income children in Kentucky ate summer meals for every 100 who ate school lunch during the regular school year. Nationally, the ratio was 16:100, an increase from the previous year.

“It’s troubling to see that participation did not increase over 2013, which means that too many children are missing out on the benefits of summer food. Kentucky can reverse this trend this summer by engaging in aggressive outreach to raise awareness of summer food,” said Tamara Sandberg, Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of Food Banks. “The Summer Nutrition Programs can make a huge difference for the hundreds of thousands of children in our state whose families struggle to afford enough food.”

The Summer Nutrition Programs, which include the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program in the summer months, could be filling the food gap for the thousands of low-income Kentucky children who rely on school breakfast and lunch during the school year to help keep hunger at bay. These programs provide free meals at participating summer sites at schools, parks, other public agencies, and nonprofits for children under 18. Not only do children benefit from the free meals, but they also benefit from the enrichment activities that keep them learning and engaged.
Low participation means missed meals for Kentucky children and missed dollars for the state. If Kentucky
had reached 40 children with summer food for every 100 low-income children who get school lunch during the regular school year, Kentucky would have fed an additional 114,911 low-income children every day in July 2014 and brought in $8,816,546 more federal dollars to do so.

“Higher participation in summer food means more low-income children get the fuel they need to thrive over the summer months,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “That reduces hunger, boosts health, reduces obesity, and keeps children primed to learn. Congress can better meet the need through this year’s Child Nutrition Reauthorization by making strategic and thoughtful investments in the Summer Nutrition Programs that bolster their capacity to serve even more children.”

The Kentucky Department of Education Division of School and Community Nutrition (SCN), which administers the Summer Nutrition Programs in Kentucky, has worked extensively this year to increase participation in the summer meals programs. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) team traveled throughout Kentucky providing training and technical assistance to both new and participating sponsors in an effort to streamline the SFSP processes and increase meal participation in 2015.

SCN has worked with Rural Development and HUD to link multi-family properties to sponsoring organizations to provide meal opportunities to children who may otherwise not have the opportunity to travel to summer feeding sites. Sponsoring organizations in counties with the highest number of summer meals participation have collaborated to concentrate on ways to provide meals to underserved areas of their counties.

SCN is once again working with the Division of Libraries and Archives through the “Fueling the Mind” program at libraries across Kentucky to provide reading and meal opportunities to children during the summer months. Along with these efforts, Kentucky has been identified as a targeted state by the USDA and has worked closely with USDA staff to work to increase participation.

Finally, in an effort to increase participation and meet the USDA provided goals for 2015, SCN has adopted the “+25” campaign challenging all SFSP sponsors to add an additional 25 children to their program for the months of June and July. Many sponsors have embraced this opportunity with several working to exceed this goal.

Kentucky families can find nearby summer meal sites here or by calling the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3HUNGRY (1-866-348-6479).