Summertime means school is out and children are on break from eating. You might be thinking that’s a typo. Kids get a break from pencils and books – not food. But the truth is food insecurity among children goes up in the summertime when school breakfast and lunch is no longer an option. This hurts their ability to stay healthy as well as learn in the next school year.
22 million kids across the country rely on school meals. When schools close for summer often those meal programs shut down too.
The Houston Food Bank helps fill this gap through our Kids Cafe Summer Meals Program that provides free, nutritious meals to children. This part of the program is funded through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The meals must be provided along with educational or recreational activities by schools, non-profits, or communities of faith. Schools can also choose to participate in another program called the Seamless Summer Option (SSO).
So, if there are programs that feed children during the summer, what more do you need to know? Well, programs like these ran into big problems during the pandemic because no one could come together in a congregate meal setting. Thankfully, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the authority to issue nationwide waivers on some of the non-safety regulations child nutrition programs had in place. This includes allowing parents to pick up multiple meals at one time to take home. In addition, there were higher reimbursement rates for schools operating summer feeding and fewer regulations about meals occurring at certain times. On top of these waivers was the additional success of Summer EBT which provided an electronic debit card with a balance equivalent to the value of missed school meals.
These flexibilities proved to reduce paperwork for schools and non-profits and feed more children than would have been possible under higher costs and fewer staff. Just look at these numbers! Across Texas in 2019 when there were no waivers a total of 15.5 million meals were served during the summer and in 2021 with waivers there were over 88 million meals served.
But nationwide waivers are coming to an end on June 30th. The Texas Department of Agriculture, responsible for child nutrition programs in the state, has made an individual application for waivers, but must continue to be flexible and not put participation barriers in place. Congress can pass legislation to make these waivers and Summer EBT permanent, but so far they haven’t taken that action.
Let’s not go back to the old way of doing things. Let’s decide we aren’t going to allow children to go hungry. Seems like a pretty simple thing to agree on in a time when so much seems complicated.