food security – ��

More Hoosier Kids Eating Free Summer Meals

Casey Smith — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 14:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

Although a new report indicates an ongoing nationwide drop in the number of children who participated in free summer meals last year, data shows Indiana bucked the trend with more Hoosier kids receiving lunches in 2023 than in 2022.

The released Tuesday by the Food Research & Action Center revealed (FRAC) that 170,926 fewer children benefited from meals served through the Summer Nutrition Programs in 2023 compared to the previous year. That means only 15.3 children received summer lunch for every 100 who received a free or reduced-price school lunch during the previous school year.

But in Indiana, more than 72,000 children participated in free summer lunches on an average day in July 2023 — a nearly 33% increase from 2022. By comparison, 17.3 Hoosier kids ate summer lunch for every 100 who participated in the free and reduced program during the academic year.

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Participation rates for breakfast still show room for improvement, however. According to FRAC’s analysis, 15,157 Hoosier children received breakfast on an average day in July 2023. That’s an increase of about 11.4% compared to July 2022, but still far less than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, for example, 73,666 Hoosier kids received free breakfast during the summer.

The overall 2023 participation boost — though there were previous summer meal increases in 2020 and 2021.

Child nutrition waivers issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture make free meals available at summer meal sites, often located at schools and community centers.

Access was expanded during the pandemic, and until 2023, federal waivers allowed meal sites to operate in all communities and offer meals that families could pick up and take home off-site consumption. Most sites have since reverted to pre-pandemic operations, meaning fewer kids can access free meals.

FRAC, a national nonprofit that aims to reduce poverty-related hunger, releases its summer nutrition report annually. Data is delayed a year however; the newest report highlights summer lunches in 2023, and 2024 numbers won’t be available for another year.

“The summer should be about play, adventure, and friends, not rumbling stomachs. 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,” said Crystal FitzSimons, interim president at FRAC, in a statement.

“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,” FitzSimons continued. “Now is the time to recommit to ending summer hunger, and more must be done.”

Numbers improve, but still low overall

Across the country, most other states saw a decrease in the average daily participation in summer lunch in July 2023 compared to July 2022, according to FRAC.

Nationwide participation for 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 for breakfast in July 2023 was 15.9% lower than July 2022, with 287,096 fewer children participating in 2023, according to the FRAC report.

Even so, Indiana ranked bottom in the country for the ratio of kids who ate both free lunches and breakfasts. Out of every 100 students who ate a summer lunch, only 25 were also served a free breakfast, according to the FRAC data.

Nutrition advocates emphasized that many Indiana families continue to struggle with hunger and food insecurity.

FRAC, specifically, is calling on federal lawmakers 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.”

Summer meal options

The two federal summer nutrition programs — the Summer Food Service Program and National School Lunch Program — provide funding to serve meals and snacks to children at sites during summer vacation or the extended breaks of year-round schools. The programs also can be used to feed children during unanticipated school closures.

The SFSP is a federally-funded, state-administered program that reimburses approved program operators who serve free, healthy meals and snacks to children under age 18 in low-income areas when school is not in session.

Sponsorship is open to public and private nonprofit groups, including local governments, summer camps, religious organizations and recreation centers. Organizations may also consider partnering with an existing sponsor, such as a school corporation, to serve students in areas where kids lack good nutrition during the summer months.

Separately, the NSLP is available for schools that operate summer school. Only the students enrolled in summer school can receive a meal, however.

The latest FRAC report indicates the number of SFSP sponsors and sites was practically the same from July 2022 to July 2023. The data shows there were 164 sponsors and 810 sites statewide that provided summer meals in July 2023.

To complement summer meals, the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program,

Thirty-seven states, including Indiana, are participating, to the USDA. Eligible families received $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.

Some 669,000 school-aged kids in Indiana were eligible, according to FRAC. It’s not yet clear how many actually participated.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

Millions of Dollars Meant to Help South Carolina Families Buy Groceries Went Unused

Skylar Laird — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:01:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

COLUMBIA — Just over $8 million meant to help families afford groceries went unused last month, according to state data.

Last August, the state Department of Social Services mailed nearly 537,000 debit cards loaded with money for groceries to families across the state. The money was part of a temporary federal program during the COVID-19 pandemic meant to help families buy groceries during the months when their children weren’t in school.

The last round of cards, which gave families $120 per child, expired in May, nine months after they were issued. Nearly 470,000 cards — 87.5% of those mailed — were activated, totaling $56.2 million.

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Whether families used up all of their allotment is unknown. DSS doesn’t track how much of a card is used once it’s activated. But with the cost of groceries, it’s expected that families who activated their card at all quickly used their total available.

Cards remain good nine months after they’re used for an initial purchase of any amount. That means the 1,300 people who first used the cards between April and May have until next January or February to use the remaining money before it, too, returns to the federal government.

The exact reasons 67,000 families did not use their cards at all are unknown. There could be several reasons a parent didn’t use the money, DSS officials and advocates have said.

Some cards may have been lost in the shuffle of other pandemic assistance, Sue Berkowitz, an advocate with Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said previously. Others may have thrown it out because they didn’t know what it was or that it was legitimate.

The social services and education departments tried to get the word out through news interviews and social media posts, agency spokespeople said.

Still other families may have intentionally discarded the aid. The cards went to the addresses listed for any student who qualifies to eat free or reduced-priced meals at school.

And the vast majority of schools statewide qualify for a federal program that allows all students to eat for free, regardless of their parents’ income. That means families who normally don’t qualify for any public assistance received the grocery debit cards anyway.

The cards sent out in August were the final of seven rounds of federal pandemic grocery aid.

In all, the state distributed 2.26 million cards between July 2020 and last August providing $1.04 billion for groceries. Parents used 90% of those cards at least once, according to DSS data.

While no complete database of states’ usage exists, South Carolina families seem to have used the money at a higher rate than other states. For instance, Missouri had about in unused grocery aid in February, and Louisiana had in April, just ahead of their cards’ expiration dates.

A new, permanent version of the program began in 35 states this summer. South Carolina was not among them after Gov. Henry McMaster declined to participate, pointing to that feed children over the summers.

Unlike the pandemic-era aid, which the federal government fully funded, the new program requires states to chip in half the administrative cost.

Democratic legislators for his decision, but that would have required him to sign on and asking Congress to extend the Jan. 1 deadline to sign up went nowhere.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

A Pandemic Experiment in Universal Free School Meals Gains Traction in the U.S.

Adam Goldstein — Thu, 11 May 2023 13:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

WASHINGTON — Every public school kid in the United States was eligible for free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of family income, thanks to the federal government.

While that’s now ended, a growing number of states across the country are enacting universal school meal laws to bolster child food security and academic equity. With little prospect of action soon in Congress, the moves by states show an appetite for free school meals for all developing beyond Washington.

Nine states have passed a temporary or permanent universal school meal policy in the past year. Another 23 have seen legislation introduced during the past three years, according to

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”As a former teacher, I know that providing free breakfast and lunch for our students is one of the best investments we can make to lower costs, support Minnesota’s working families, and care for our young learners and the future of our state,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said when on March 17.

“When we feed our children, we’re feeding our future,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, also a Democrat, when on March 28.

How it works

The and authorize the Department of Agriculture to subsidize school meals for low-income students. Schools are reimbursed for meals that meet federal nutrition standards, and incorporate U.S.-grown foods.

The programs accounted for , serving roughly at lunch and at breakfast.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government enacted a policy that ensured access to school meals for all public school students, which teachers and families say supported kids’ wellbeing during the health crisis.

Yet the program was sunsetted in 2022, given objections to its roughly $29 billion estimated annual price tag and a desire among conservative members of Congress to

“There are pieces to this program that are badly damaged,” said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “You’re not solving anything by making it a universal program.”

Under current federal law, only students with families who have incomes 185% or more below the poverty line are eligible for entirely free school meals. That would be a family of four that makes roughly $36,000 or less.

Families with income between 130% and 185% below the poverty line pay a reduced price for meals. Students whose families have income above 130% of the poverty line must pay full price.

Party divisions

Policy experts say that despite growing interest in some states, federal universal school meals legislation would be a non-starter in the current Congress, where Republicans in the House majority aim to reduce federal spending.

States led by Republicans might be less eager to move ahead as well, with or . Costs for the program range from $30 million to $40 million annually in states like Maine, to $400 million over two years in Minnesota.

Of the nine states that have passed universal school meals, all have Democratic majorities of both chambers of state legislatures and control the governor’s office.

The last legislation introduced at the federal level was the , sponsored by Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The bill failed to make it out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

“I certainly don’t have a whole lot of hope with Republican control of the House that they’ll do much, in those terms,” said Marcus Weaver-Hightower, professor of educational foundations at Virginia Tech.

Still, there is optimism about universal school meals over the long term at the federal level, after the trial run during the pandemic.

“The resistance isn’t as loud as it might seem,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and advocate for universal school meals. “I know it’s going to be able to move with urgency because the community outside of the Capitol bubble is moving with urgency, talking about this more and more.”

An experiment in the lockdown

As communities locked down in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economy weathered mass layoffs, the Department of Agriculture authorized the provision of free school meal waivers for all students, and raised the per-meal reimbursement rate.

The program grew to support during the health crisis. Food-insecure households with children decreased by 2.3 percentage points between 2020 and 2021,

“It was kind of a natural experiment,” Weaver-Hightower said. “Everybody was suddenly getting them for free.”

Jeanne Reilly, the director of school nutrition at Windham Raymond Schools in Maine, recalled that when schools were closed, school nutrition teams got creative. Lunch staff were meeting parents in parking lots to distribute meals.

Yet as vaccines proliferated at the end of 2021, and students returned to school, the federal universal meals program hit turbulence.

Conservative members of Congress, including Kentucky Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, as part of the omnibus spending bill passed in March 2022.

The bipartisan Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022 passed by Congress in June 2022 allowed some states to extend their free meal programs, and provided additional money for reimbursements. Yet school nutritionists say the effects of sunsetting the waivers are lingering.

Cohen said that experts now are starting to hear about the return of school meal debt, which can force schools to forgo educational expenses in paying the USDA for delinquent meal costs. A recent found that 847 school districts have racked up more than $19 million in debt from unpaid lunches.

School participation in the meal programs also dropped to 88% in fall 2022, compared to 94% in March 2022, according to from the Department of Education.

States take action

Five states have passed laws that will provide free universal school meals in the 2023-2024 school year and beyond, including Minnesota, New Mexico, Maine, California and Colorado.

Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are providing universal school meals for the 2022-2023 school year, through a combination of federal and state funds. Nevada is providing universal school meals through the 2023-2024 school year.

Twenty-three other states have seen universal school meals legislation introduced in the past three years, including Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, a professor of nutrition and leader of the Arizona State Food Policy and Environmental Research Group, said offering free school meals reduces the , increasing participation and nutritional benefits for those who need it most.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and the Jean Mayer Professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, cited a which found school meals are among the most nutritious meals students eat anywhere.

Other studies have shown that universal school meals p on school attendance, and academic performance across grades.

Tlaib says she benefited firsthand from participating in the National School Lunch Program when she was a kid, while growing up with 13 siblings, an immigrant father who worked the night shift at Ford Motor Company and a mother who was still learning English.

“As our family grew larger, I’ll tell you that I don’t think my family would have ever been able to provide us food for lunch,” Tlaib said. “When you have a parent tell me that’s the only place their child eats twice a day, this is so incredibly important.”

Others say that the policy would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, and push the school lunch program further from its original purpose.

“Free and reduced price school meals are for those who need the assistance,” said Republican Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, who declined to extend universal school meal waivers in a stopgap spending bill in September, in a statement to States Newsroom.

“Universal school meals isn’t about increasing access for hungry children — it’s about taxpayers subsidizing meals for those who do not need it.”

Butcher, of the Heritage Foundation, said that the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs are on the high-priority list for the government watchdog Government Accountability Office, as

Baylen Linnekin, a food policy analyst for the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation, said that nutritional quality of the meals has improved “slightly” since the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.

But he said go to overhead expenses, and with the variety of diets and allergies emerging, he said there is “no way” one school meal program can account for the needs of all children.

Origins of free school meals

In the build-up to World War I and World War II, a significant number of men who signed up for military service were disqualified due to nutritional deficiencies. This, combined with economic pressures of the Great Depression, fueled the development of federally-subsidized meal programs.

President Harry Truman signed the formally enshrining the National School Lunch Program.

“The preamble is that it has a military function: the nation’s defense of the welfare of children, and the protection of our agricultural system,” Weaver-Hightower said.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Republicans in Washington began denouncing inefficiencies in the meals program, and pushing policies that dropped participation by millions of children.

It wouldn’t be until 2010 that the idea of nutritious school meals for all children gained steam, when Congress ultimately passed the

The legislation enacted more rigorous nutrition standards to combat the rise of childhood obesity, while boosting federal meal reimbursement rates. It also created the which allowed schools with more than 40% of students on means-tested federal nutrition programs to offer free meals to all students.

While the CEP has improved outcomes for students in low-income areas, nutrition experts say the provision has not eliminated child food insecurity.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are a lot of families that are not eligible for free school meals that are struggling,” said Juliana Cohen, director of the Center for Health Inclusion, Research and Practice at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.

Some things states and localities can do

While Congress may not act on universal school meals, policy minds said there are numerous alternatives for state and local governments to improve student food access.

Cohen said in 2022, folding it into the free lunch tier.

Mozaffarian said he believes the best return on investment at the federal level is by expanding the Community Eligibility Provision, so public schools could provide free meals to all students if they have 25% of their students or more on means-tested nutrition assistance.

He added that this change earlier this year.

Mozaffarian also suggested increasing the reimbursement rate for low-income schools, as well as improving federal school lunch nutrition standards. The doctor also recommended investing in scratch kitchens, where chefs make food from fresh ingredients, at low-income schools.

Butcher suggested using the money for universal school meals to create which allow parents to “design” their child’s educational experience.

Reilly noted that she hopes to see a federal universal school meal legislation, because “everyone needs it.”

“I do think it’s feasible in the next five or 10 years federally,” Mozaffarian said.

Tlaib said that we as a society have a “moral obligation” to ensure students do not worry about where their next meal comes from.

“Something like this — something that our country can afford — we should do it,” Tlaib said. “There should be no hesitation.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on and .

food security – ��������

More Hoosier Kids Eating Free Summer Meals

Numbers improve, but still low overall

Summer meal options

Millions of Dollars Meant to Help South Carolina Families Buy Groceries Went Unused

A Pandemic Experiment in Universal Free School Meals Gains Traction in the U.S.

How it works

Party divisions

An experiment in the lockdown

States take action

Origins of free school meals

Some things states and localities can do

food security – ��