Strategies for Tough Times: Serve Free Meals to Kids in your Community this Summer Webinar
When school lets out for the summer, what happens to the growing number of children that rely on a free/reduced-price school lunch?
Roughly 80% of kids in California receiving a subsidized lunch during the school year did not participate in a subsidized food program during the summer. This dramatic gap puts low-income kids in every community at deeper risk of food insecurity and childhood obesity…and jeopardizes their academic future.
Summer meal programs present an untapped opportunity to serve nutritious (and reimbursable) meals to kids in need and help communities collaborate in new, cost-effective ways.
Join us in our quest to Stop California’s Summer Nutrition Gap by taking action in your community.
The California Summer Meal Coalition is a statewide network united to combat childhood hunger and obesity by increasing access to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s subsidized summer lunch programs. The Coalition is administered by California Center for Research on Women and Families. Learn more at www.ccrwf.org/summer-meal-coalition.
Click here for more information and to register.
Disclosure: Isaac Gonzalez is a social media consultant working of behalf of The California Endowment and their Building Healthy Communities campaign in South Sacramento
Why summer meals? For many children in low-income neighborhoods, the stability and nutrition offered by the lunch they get at school all but ends when school lets out for summer vacation.
According to California Food Policy Advocates’ 2011School’s Out…Who Ate report, an estimated 80% of children in California receiving free/reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) during the school year did not participate in one of the USDA’s summer feeding programs (Summer Food Service Program, National School Lunch Program/Seamless Summer Feeding Option). Many communities simply do not have enough summer meal providers, or have been forced to cut back existing summer meal programs due to cuts to summer school programs.Summer Meal programs present an untapped opportunity to combat childhood hunger and obesity. The California Summer Meal Coalition’s mission is:
- To encourage more school districts and community organizations to become summer meal providers.
- To support summer meal program managers with information and tools to help them operate their program.
- To assist summer meal program managers in building nutrition education and opportunities for physical activity into their programs.
Led by CCRWF, the Summer Meal Coalition partners with the Nutrition Services Division of the California Department of Education, the California Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy California, and summer meal leaders from across the state to help new summer meal providers get started and existing providers succeed. Be sure to check out our past and upcoming webinars, our monthly newsletter and case studies and tools to learn how to develop a successful program in your community. We hope you find the resources provided on on our website useful. If there are specific resources you’d like to see, please let us know!
http://ccrwf.org/