Let Them Eat Jelly Beans—Summer School Lunches Going Uneaten
With most states slashing K-12 education budgets to close their deficits, many have asked why the feds don’t step in to help. However, the feds have always kicked in a little toward state education programs, and continue to do so—the National School Lunch Program being one of the more well-known examples.
Yet even some of this federal funding is being wasted as a result of state and local program cuts. According to a recent report by the California Food Policy Advocates, there has been a sharp decline in participation of federally funded summer meal programs due to the loss of summer school programs in California. In July, 2011, participation in the program was down
