USDA – Page 6 – The Abbey Group

Summer Meal Programs

Schoooooools out for summer!

During the school year, many children receive reduced-price or free breakfast and lunch through the National School Lunch Programs. Many parents rely on these meals for their children during the school year so what happens to children when school’s out? The USDA has developed a Summer Food Service Program designed to fill that gap of nutrition when school is out.

Outreach is the biggest obstacle in making the summer meals a success. Millions of low-income children across the country may go hungry this summer because they don’t know about these programs. Right now the program only reaches a fraction of children who are in need. Hunger is one of the most severe roadblocks to the learning process and lack of nutrition during the summer months may set up a cycle for poor performance once school begins again. Hunger also may make children more prone to illness and other health issues.

Depending on federal qualifications, some site locations are open to the entire community and serve many youth activity focused programs and organizations. Most summer meal programs do not require children to actually attend the school that they receive their summer meals from. The USDA wants to open the service to as many children as possible to feed as many in need as possible.

If you’re interested in these summer meals for your children ask your local cafeteria if they’re enrolled in the program. If they’re not, give a call to the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-Hungry or 1-877-8-HAMBRE (English or Spanish) to learn of sites in your area.

It is after all, all about the kids! Have a healthy and nutritious summer everyone!

On Federally Mandated School Lunch Price

Two years ago the Federal government passed a law, the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, which requires all schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program to gradually increase hot lunch price to eventually align with free meal reimbursement (currently set at $2.72) over the next few years. The purpose of this legislation is to equalize the price of a paid hot lunch with the amount of money the Federal government reimburses districts for students who receive free and reduced lunches.

Hunger Free Kids Act also includes a new set of nutritional guidelines set by the USDA. We had touched upon some of these new guidelines in one of our last posts but just in case you missed it, here’s the scoop:

All Schools who participate in the National School Lunch Program, which includes all of our schools, must construct menus based on USDA recommended regular daily requirements for nutrition. School lunch programs are audited on a regular basis by the government for compliance. For the 2012-2013 school year, the Federal government has developed new nutritional guidelines that can be found in detail on the USDA website.

The targeted nutritional areas for these changes are a maximum amount of calories served, sodium amounts, an increase in vegetables and fruits, as well as new restrictions on grain consumption.