A Message:

HUNGER DOESN'T TAKE A SUMMER VACATION

The Challenge
When schools close their doors for vacation next summer, over 12 million poor children, who qualify to receive a free or reduced price lunch during the academic year, will be deprived of this vital meal. The implications for these children's health and well-being are significant. For over two months, the vast majority of these children will not have access to nutritious meals like the ones they receive during the school year.

We cannot accept this nutrition gap. Here at USDA, we can encourage and inform many people about the benefits of the Summer Food Service Program, but the decision whether or not to offer the program to needy children will always be a local one. By working together to provide these children with adequate nutrition during the summer we can improve this situation significantly. 

The Sobering Facts
The Child Nutrition Programs represent an effective and vital part of our nation's nutrition safety net.  During the school year, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serves more than 18.5 million low-income children free or reduced-price meals each day.  However, once summer vacation or the long vacations in year-round schools arrive, school meals aren't available for most children.

In fact, only about 1.2 million children receive meals under the NSLP on any given day during the summer.  Some of these children are participating in summer school, and some are on their regular track in year-round schools.

In addition, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) serves another 2.2 million lunches each day. That adds up to 3.4 million low-income children who ate a nutritious meal on a given day last summer—fewer than one in five of the children who receive free and reduced price school meals during the regular school year! 

These numbers are especially alarming because the SFSP is specifically designed to be operated in economically depressed areas where alternatives to school lunches are not readily available or where many children cannot afford them. 

We would like to see both programs increase participation, but it is particularly important for the SFSP to become more accessible as the number of schools providing summer classes or operating year-round is more limited than the total number of schools potentially available for the SFSP.

The SFSP is intended to function as a nutrition link between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, and for more than twenty-five years it has filled this role successfully in many communities.

However, the SFSP is presently available in too few locations, with the result that the number of poor children benefiting from good, nutritious lunches under this program is unreasonably low.

Some children may not reside in eligible areas, but many do. To meet their needs, we must have more school, faith, and community organizations to provide them.  We are committed to caring for our children throughout the entire year, whether or not school is in session. To make this commitment a reality, we need more partners at the local level who will provide this important benefit to their communities.

Our children need you.