summer food service program

The winds of winter may still be blowing where you live, but it is already time to start thinking about the summer.  When school is finished, over 20 million children who receive free or reduced-price lunch during the school year through USDA’s National School Lunch Program will be in trouble.  Less than 3 million kids participate in our summer feeding programs.  We want to make sure that no child in the U.S. goes to bed hungry, whether school is in session or out.  We can only do that with your help.  Your organization can get free meals for kids this summer by being a site or sponsor in the Summer Food Service Program.  SFSP is a federally funded program administered by states that reimburses organizations for meals served to children during the summer.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

The two most direct ways to get involved in the Summer Food Service Program in your community are to either become a sponsor or a feeding site.  What’s the difference you may ask?  Being a sponsor means acting as the organizer for Summer Food Service sites.  Sponsors manage, train, supervise and monitor all food service activities and locations where children can eat.  They also maintain paperwork and submit claims for reimbursement.

Each summer, 22.3 million students are at risk of going hungry when the school year ends and school lunches are no longer available.  For many children, school meals are the only complete and nutritious meals they eat, and in the summer they go without.  The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) can help to fill the summer meal gap for low-income children.  Faith-based, community and private non-profit organizations can make a difference in the lives of hungry children by serving meals with SFSP, a federally funded program administered by states that reimburses organizations for meals served to children during the summer.

I never tire of meeting the organizations and individuals across our great country that help feed hungry children. In late January, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown teamed up with the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks to hold a summit on preventing child hunger in the summer.

The depths of winter might seem a strange time to discuss summer feeding programs, but good planning is essential to ensure that kids don’t experience hunger in the summer. So January was the perfect time for such meeting!

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Summer Food Service Program – in the middle of winter?

That question is a common one when we talk about the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). During the school year, many children receive free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. What happens when school lets out? Hunger is one of the most severe roadblocks to the learning process. The Summer Food Service Program is designed to fill that nutrition gap and make sure children can get the nutritious meals they need.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! Blog:

I recently visited the Willie Mays Boys and Girls Club to find out from the children what participating in USDA's Summer Food Service Program means to them.  Year-round, afternoons at the Club means the children get to cook a healthy bean and kale soup, with fresh ingredients they grow in the Club’s Edible Schoolyard.  It also means that on a cool winter day a few blocks away from the San Francisco Bay, children brave the weather to water and tend to their garden knowing the strawberries will soon be ready to eat.  For Rena, the first strawberry that she ever ate came from the Edible Schoolyard, where she planted it. Now, of course, strawberries are her favorite food.

In early October, USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships was honored to host a dozen Latino faith leaders to our “Tuve Hambre y Me Diste de Comer” (“For I was Hungry and You Fed Me”) consultation on improving Latino outreach. USDA studies show that 1 out of 4 Hispanic households in the US are food insecure and that this number is only growing. The situation is well-known among these leaders whose congregations and organizations are on the front lines of serving those threatened by hunger.

On October 4, fellow USDA Food and Nutrition Service staffer Julie Mikkelson and I attended the Minnesota Vikings annual Taste of the NFL bash at Minneapolis’ Mall of America. This enormously popular charity event funds feeding efforts operated by Second Harvest Heartland, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization.

By Under Secretary Kevin Concannon, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

It is so important to ensure children get enough to eat, especially during summer months when school is out and access to school meals is unavailable.   And that’s why bridging the summer food gap is a high priority at USDA.

The USDA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships co-hosted with USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and USDA FNS Western Regional Office Administrator Allen Ng, another successful community roundtable. More than 100 people attended, including State, county, and city leaders; promotoras; and representatives from faith-based organizations, community groups, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Food Bank, area hospitals, and the Mexican Consulate. Special guests included California Endowment Director Dr. Beatriz Solis and the legendary farmworkers’ advocate Dolores Huerta. Panelists included John A. Wagner, Director of the California Department of Social Services, and Philip Browning, Director of Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services.