Network Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee Resource to Connect to Summer Food
At their June 1, 2009 meeting, the California Afterschool Network Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee discussed the possible reduction in summer food sites for youth this summer. Fearing that the data may not be available illustrating food insecurity among youth until after the summer, the committee decided to take steps to raise awareness and increase access to summer food. The Committee formed a sub-committee that compiled information making the case for summer food and offering resources to connect to or become a summer food site. This document is found below.
Join the Network Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee - Committee membership is open to all and subject to your availability. Most committee meetings happen via telephone.
When school lets out, will children across our state go hungry?
- Many family food budgets will be very tight this summer.
- In many parts of California, the official unemployment rate is reaching levels not seen for over 50 years.
- Some families are reaching the end of their unemployment benefits.
- Extra financial stresses are added as families lose their health care coverage or face foreclosure on their houses.
- During the school year, many families rely on school meal programs to help make ends meet—for many of these children, school meals mean the difference between getting enough to eat and going hungry.
- When school lets out, summer food programs can make it possible for schools, community organizations, churches, camps, and parks and recreation programs to provide nourishing meals and snacks.
- Last summer two-thirds of the students who ate school meals did not get summer meals.
- This year could be much worse. Budget cuts are leading to cities and schools cutting back on their summer programs and summer school offerings—along with program cuts, summer meal sites are likely to get cut too.
- Right when we need more sites, we may have fewer summer meal sites than ever.
- The need for more summer meal sites and better advertising about where to find these sites will be greater this summer.
You can help by signing up your sites for summer meals!!!
- The best way to become a meal site for this summer is to connect with an organization that is already a summer food program sponsor. It’s too late for you to become a new sponsor for this summer, but existing sponsors can always add your sites.
- The California Department of Education (CDE) can help link you to an existing summer food program sponsor in your community. For more information, contact Melissa Garza at (800) 333-5675 or mgarza@cde.ca.gov.
- It’s never too late — New summer meal sites can be added at any point in the summer.
For more information on the summer meal programs and how they work, read on.
For students in low-income neighborhoods, there are two federally funded nutrition programs which can be used to offer low-income children meals during the summer break: the Seamless Summer Feeding Option (SSFO) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Both of these programs are administered by CDE. Typically, under each of these programs, a local agency administers multiple meal sites. School districts are the key sponsors of summer meal programs. Other local government agencies, like city Parks and Recreation Departments, or community-based organizations like the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club, can be sponsors too.
Seamless Summer Feeding Option (SSFO)
The SSFO is an extension of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and allows Public School Districts (Districts) and County Offices of Education (COEs) to offer up to two meals a day during the summer break. While only Districts/COEs administering the NSLP or School Breakfast Program may participate in the SSFO, other organizations may operate SSFO sites under their sponsorship with CDE approval. SSFO is less complex to administer than SFSP and, as a result, the meal reimbursement is lower than SFSP’s.Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)
SFSP works best for summer programs that are operated by a local government agency such as a Parks and Recreation department or a nonprofit organization. SFSP is also good for schools that are especially concerned about reimbursement rates. The SFSP reimbursement is higher than the SSFO reimbursement which is the reason why some schools operate SFSP during the summer instead of SSFO. However, SFSP is more administratively complex to administer than SSFO.
For more information on the SSFO and SFSP, visit CDE’s website at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sf/
You can help by advocating for summer meals in your community
School districts typically offer summer meals at their summer school sites—Encourage your district to avoid cutting summer programming and, at the very least, continue to offer summer meals.
- As your district faces budget cuts and possible cuts to summer programs, additional Title I funding is being made available through the federal stimulus package – also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This funding can be used to offer summer programs, making it easier to also offer summer meals.
- Your Nutrition Services Director may need your help convincing your Superintendent / School Board that summer meals are worth the additional investment. Many district Nutrition Services Departments, while committed to feeding needy children, are faced with higher costs when offering summer meals because they lose economies of scale and the revenues generated by students who purchase lunch. This would be especially true if a school were to offer a summer food program without an accompanying academic or recreational program that could share the facilities costs.
- To find out where summer meals are being served in your community, go to CDE’s website: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/summersites08.asp. On this page, you can get a list of summer food sites in your county with site addresses and contact information.
You can help by referring students to nearby summer food sites.
If your program will not be operating this summer, you can still find out the closest summer meal sites. Go to CDE’s website for the site listing (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/summersites08.asp) and let your students know that they can eat lunch there even if they are not in a program.
Resources
Summer Food Program Information:
California Afterschool Network—Virtual Workshop, "Accessing Summer Food and After School Snack Resources." Audio from the telephone workshop and additional online after school snack and summer food resources:
http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/node/7425
California Department of Education—summer food program descriptions and lists of summer food sites by county:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sf/
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/summersites08.asp
California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA)—summer food webpage:
http://www.cfpa.net/press/sowa2008/index.htm
Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)—summer food webpage, toolkit and model summer food programs:
http://frac.org/afterschool/summer.html
http://frac.org/afterschool/summer_toolkit.htm
http://www.frac.org/afterschool/models_summer.htm
Funding for Summer Programs via the ARRA:
Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth—ARRA and Summer Programming Fact Sheet
http://www.bayareapartnership.org/ARRA%20Summer%20Final.pdf
Technical Assistance and Support:
Deanna Niebuhr, Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth
(510) 830-4200 x1605 or deanna@bayareapartnership.org
Eric Manke, California Association of Food Banks
(510) 272-4435 x214 or eric@cafoodbanks.org
Melissa Garza, California Department of Education
800-952-5609 or mgarz@cde.ca.gov