USDA Explores Cost Effective Ways to Improve Summer Food Access for Kids

WASHINGTON, November 14, 2014 – Complementary programs that extend the reach of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) summer meal programs could help reduce childhood food insecurity during the summer, according to three studies released today by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). The studies found that making enhancements to the traditional program, or utilizing alternate methods of reaching eligible children, could reach additional children and reduce childhood food insecurity during the summer to levels normally seen in the fall.

As part of USDA’s mission to address increased child hunger during the summer, USDA has conducted a series of projects examining ways to better serve children from low-income families, particularly those living in remote areas or areas otherwise underserved by USDA’s summer meal programs. The interventions tested included delivery of meals in rural areas, providing backpacks with food for weekends and holidays when summer meal sites were not available, and providing summertime nutrition assistance benefits through electronic benefit transfer (EBT).  The studies found that some of these innovative strategies were effective in reaching additional children, and some substantially reduced childhood hunger in low-income families.

“These results are an important step forward,” Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon said. “Children from low-income households depend on USDA’s nutrition assistance programs when schools are closed, which makes finding ways to improve these programs vitally important.”

USDA has tested a number of alternatives to its standard Summer Food Service Program, to address challenges in the program and expand access to underserved families.  The Summer EBT for Children demonstration project, a strategy evaluated as an alternative to the traditional summer meal programs, tested the impact of providing a monthly benefit per school age child on food insecurity among low-income children during the summer.  These benefits were delivered through existing EBT systems used in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

A previous evaluation showed that a $60 per child, per month benefit during the summer reduced the incidence of the most severe form of food insecurity among children by about one-third, with positive effects on less severe forms as well. A report released today found that a $30 benefit was as effective in reducing the most severe category of food insecurity among children during the summer. At both benefit levels, the Summer EBT for Children program was more effective at reaching eligible children.  Between 23-42 percent of eligible children joined the program, compared to about 16 percent who participate in traditional summer meal programs. 

Two additional demonstrations discussed in today’s reports tested enhancements to the traditional Summer Food Service Program to expand the reach of the program and further reduce food insecurity.  In one project, breakfast and lunch was delivered to children in rural areas of Delaware, Massachusetts, and New York who did not have access to regular SFSP sites. The studies found that this method was able to reach children in rural areas who did not have access to traditional summer meal programs, but the overall number of additional children was relatively small. A second project provided children in Arizona, Kansas, and Ohio with backpacks of food for consumption during weekend periods when SFSP sites were closed. The backpack project was effective in reaching families with the highest levels of poverty, but had mixed results on participation, with one state showing increases in participation, one showing only modest gains, and the other showing declines. Although the enhancement projects had mixed results, the evaluation found that in both cases, participating families and site operators felt the demonstrations were an important resource to address summertime hunger.

USDA has requested $30 million in the 2015 budget to expand the Summer EBT for Children pilots. If additional funding is made available, FNS will work with states to explore the best options for further implementation of this successful project.

FNS oversees the administration of 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the Summer Food Service Program, that touch the lives of one in four Americans over the course of a year. These programs work in concert to form a national safety net against hunger. Visit www.fns.usda.gov for information about FNS and nutrition assistance programs.

 

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