New Report Released as School Lets Out for Summer:

Summer Feeding Programs Reached Only 30% of Low-Income Children in California

Some California Communities Succeed In Overcoming Barriers to Participation

Los Angeles, CA – A new report by California Food Policy Advocates has found that only one in three low-income California schoolchildren who ate a school lunch during the school year received a meal at school or another USDA feeding site in July 2004. The report, School’s Out…Who Ate? 2005, documents barriers to participation in the federally-funded summer nutrition programs and how several California communities have responded. The report includes county-by-county participation data from the California Department of Education, analysis, and recommendations to policymakers for how they can increase kids’ consumption of nutritious lunches when school is out.

The importance of summer meals is underscored by a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that found 2.9 million low-income adults struggling to get enough to eat in 2003. There are kids in most of those households, who suddenly having to stretch their family budgets to cover kids’ meals as well as their own will mean greater difficulty during summer months.

CFPA’s California-specific report is being released in coordination with national data released by the Food Research and Action Center indicating a decline in lunches served in California from 2003 to 2004. “Given rising rates of food insecurity and childhood obesity, California can and should do better at making sure low-income children get the nutrition they need during the summer ,” said Matthew Sharp, author of the report and Regional Advocate in California Food Policy Advocates’ Los Angeles Office. “The key barriers are lack of convenient, open sites, combined with a lack of coordinated outreach.” The report spotlights efforts in several counties that have succeeded in spite of these barriers.

The report presents action steps for California. “Everyone has a role to play to improve summer nutrition,” said Sharp. “First and foremost, schools need to offer lunch during summer to kids throughout the community. When the summer school session ends, schools must ensure children from low-income families find a nearby replacement lunch site.”

State and federal policymakers can take a variety of actions to ensure good meals are available, from simplifying complex program administration to requiring summer schools to offer lunch. The community can pitch in as well, sponsoring lunch programs and connecting families to those locations.

Copies of the report can be found at http://www.cfpa.net/SOWA2005.pdf

County-specific information can be found in the report, as well as background on the summer nutrition landscape and analysis of challenges facing rural communities and improving meal quality.

More details on food insecurity can be found at: http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/food_insecurity_05.html

More information on the summer lunch program:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sf/

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Additional Contact information:

Ken Hecht, Executive Director, California Food Policy Advocates (510) 409-6436

Kim Wade, California Association of Food Banks (415) 531-3222 for information about the efforts of local food banks.