Despite our society’s efforts, childhood hunger remains a reality in the United States. In fact, 16.2 million children struggle with hunger in America. During the school year, school lunches often feed children in need. The Food and Research Center reports that in 2012, 31.6 million kids were fed daily by the National School Lunch Program. However, when the school year ends and summer begins, millions of low-income children lose access to school breakfasts and lunches. For many of these children, these may be the only nutritious and healthy meals they enjoy on a normal day. So when school is out, who feeds these kids?
In many communities, the answer is the community park and recreation agency. Park and recreation agencies also participate in the federal Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and are the largest public provider of healthy meals and snacks outside of schools. Data from PRORAGIS™ illustrates that almost 50 percent of park and recreation agencies that offer summer camps are sites for feeding programs. Research estimates that park and recreation agencies serve 560 million meals to children through summer and after-school programs each year. The SFSP is designed to replace regular school year feeding programs by providing low-income children access to the nutritious meals they need to prevent hunger and remain healthy throughout the summer. Furthermore, summer nutrition programs offered at park and recreation sites play an important role by involving children in educational and recreational programming to keep them engaged, active and safe during the summer months.
In recent years, federal summer nutrition programs have struggled to meet the need because of budget cuts to state and local programs that support underlying summer programs for children. NRPA continues to work with national partners to address children’s hunger during out-of-school times. As the largest public provider of children’s meals during the summer months, our agencies have clearly shown the capacity to effectively reach children in need of nutritious meals.
Travis Smith, Ph.D., is NRPA’s Vice President of Research. Rishma Parpia is a Research Consultant at The Research Workroom LLC.