Summer is About Feeding Kids

When schools close their doors for the summer months, many of us think of vacations and long days playing in the bright sunny weather. But for struggling families, summer school closures often mean a few months of greater hardship as low-income students lose access to free and reduced-price school meals.

Ensuring that kids have access to nutritious food where they live, learn, and play is a year-round goal but is especially important during the summer to help kids stay healthy, active, and better equipped to hit the books when fall comes. The federal Summer Food Service Program funds free meals sites for all kids under the age of 18 in areas where 50% or more of the kids are eligible for a free or reduced-price school meal. Summer meals must comply with federal nutrition standards, must be consumed by kids on-site, and often, meals will also include activities so that kids have a safe, fun place to go to feed their minds and bodies.

Another strategy that can help families put food on the table during summer months is to give families that use the school meal program additional money to buy food to provide the breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that their kids otherwise miss during the summer. Summer EBT pilot programs give temporary Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards with money for the summer months and have proven highly successful: pilots, including one conducted in Washington State, found that summer EBT reduced household food insecurity by as much as 33%.

Congress has an opportunity to improve access and participation in programs that address summer hunger, school meals, after school meals, and WIC. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act governs these programs, and this year, committees in both the House and the Senate have held hearings to help them start shaping legislation such that we anticipate that bill language will be available in the fall with a goal to pass legislation by the end of the year.

In Washington, where 1 in 6 of our kids struggle with hunger, we owe it to our kids to speak up to lawmakers about good ideas that can help expand access and participation. In these programs. This way, kids can just be kids, instead of worrying about where their next meal will come from. If you are authorized to sign for your organization, join Northwest Harvest in endorsing The Summer Meals Act (co-sponsored by Rep. Rick Larsen from Washington’s 2^nd District) and the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act (sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray). Stay tuned to our advocacy updates for more information about Child Nutrition Reauthorization and opportunities to advocate with lawmakers to ensure that all of our kids get the nutrition they need to grow into the futures they deserve.