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What a State Legislator Can Do to Increase Participation in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)

[click here for MS Word (doc) file of this brochure]

Legislative Assistance

Appropriate funding for SFSP meal reimbursements, start-up and expansion grants, administrative costs, transportation, toll-free hunger hotlines, and outreach.

Require your state to operate the SFSP in high poverty areas in your state (currently Missouri and Texas have SFSP state mandates).

Outreach Efforts

Visit SFSP sites in your state to draw media attention to and increase public awareness of the SFSP.

Appear on community public affairs programs to publicize the SFSP.

Write an op-ed piece for local newspapers in support of the SFSP.

Place articles and announcements about the SFSP in your constituent mailings, state and local human service agency newsletters, community and ethnic newspapers, church bulletins and pennysavers.

Produce public service announcements for television and radio.

Create advertisements for public transportation, billboards, milk cartons, and grocery bags.

Make certain that hunger hotlines refer hungry people in your state to the SFSP sites in their communities.

Logistical Solutions

Coordinate transportation for children to the SFSP sites in rural communities in your state.

Sponsor coordination meetings of anti-hunger advocates, your state’s SFSP coordinator, schools, parks and recreation departments, YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, churches, etc., to encourage sponsors and sites to participate and to develop partnerships.

Let school SFSP sponsors know that they may provide meals during the summer through the National School Lunch Program, which dramatically reduces paperwork and administrative burdens. This is a great opportunity for schools to start feeding children during the summer or to add more sites to existing programs. It is important to make sure that schools know about this important new option. Tell them to ask the state education agency about the "Seamless Summer Option."

If you are from Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Wyoming or Puerto Rico, your SFSP sponsors fall under the new Simplified Summer Food Program, which reduces their paperwork and accounting requirements and also allows them to claim the maximum reimbursement for all meals served in the SFSP. It is important to make sure that sponsors are aware of and benefit from this important change.

Encourage SFSP sites to stay open for the entire summer in order to ensure that low-income children in your state do not encounter a “meals gap” while school’s out.

What is the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)?

When school lets out, millions of low-income children lose access to the school breakfasts, lunches and afterschool snacks they receive during the regular school year. The Summer Food Service Program for Children (SFSP) is a key to filling this vacuum.

The SFSP was created by Congress in 1968. It is an entitlement program that provides funds to eligible sponsoring organizations that serve nutritious meals to low-income children when school is not in session. The SFSP provides meals and snacks to children who might otherwise go hungry and is often provided in conjunction with educational, developmental, and recreational activities.

USDA provides funding through state agencies (generally state education agencies) to reimburse eligible sponsors for meals and snacks served to children at summer programs. Sponsors are organizations that operate one or more sites that provide low-income children with meals and snacks when school is not in session.

Why Should A State Legislator Be Interested in the SFSP?

While about 15.3 million children depend on free or reduced-price school meals during the school year, only about 2.9 million, or about 19 percent, receive meals when school is out

During the school year, school lunches and breakfasts can provide over one-half of the nutrients low-income children consume each weekday. Many of these children are at nutritional risk when they do not have access to school meals.

When children lose access to school meals as well as afterschool snacks, they and their families are hard-pressed to fill the hunger gap: According to America’s Second Harvest’s 2001 study of hunger in the United States, 46.2 percent of food pantries and 68.2 percent of soup kitchens serve “many more children in the summer.”

The SFSP helps give low-income children the best start on the new school year by providing them with crucial nutrition when school is out.

Many SFSP sites provide not just meals, but educational enrichment and recreational activities that help children continue to learn and stay safe when school is not in session. The meals provided through the SFSP act as “magnets” to draw children to these activities.

The reimbursements from the SFSP also provide essential financial support to programs that serve low-income children when school is not in session.

In many communities, the SFSP provides employment for local citizens and a boost to the local economy.

More questions about the SFSP? E-mail abylander@frac.org