WASHINGTON, DC – Only one in five of the 16 million children who receive free or reduced price school lunches on a typical day during the regular school year is served by federal nutrition programs during the summer, according to the new report "Hunger Doesn't Take A Vacation" from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

In July 2003 (the latest state-by-state data available), 3.2 million children from low-income families received meals at parks, schools, religious congregations, and other community sites through either the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) or the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).

"We are dismayed that the nation is leaving millions of children without access to nutritious meals in summer months," said FRAC President Jim Weill. "Millions of kids who rely on school meals for nine months of the year are unnecessarily going hungry for the other three. This can ruin their summers and makes them less prepared for school in the fall."

The report notes that the federal, state and local governments, schools, and community-based organizations that are serving meals to children in summer months are doing important work. "They are fighting childhood hunger, keeping children's minds and bodies active, and bringing important federal resources into hard-pressed neighborhoods," said Weill. "There are, however, far too few such programs. We challenge public and private programs to step up to the plate for hungry children and bring the Summer Nutrition Programs to scale."

FRAC's report ranks states by assessing their performance in reaching needy youngsters with either SFSP or NSLP summer meals, compared to regular school year meals. If states performed just at the level achieved by those states with the best records in recent years (40 students served in the summer for every 100 served during the regular school year), FRAC estimates the federal programs would feed another 3.2 million children in low-income communities and provide a total of $166 million in additional federal funds in communities across the nation.

The FRAC report contains state-by-state analysis of the size of the shortfalls -- in numbers of children and total dollars. It analyzes long-term as well as new barriers put in the way of feeding more hungry children in summer, such as state and local budget cuts to summer school programming.

One proven strategy for ratcheting up participation has simplified cost accounting and paperwork and allowed for modestly higher meal reimbursement rates in 13 states. The "Lugar pilot" project was proposed by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and enacted by Congress in 2000. Taken as a whole, participation in Summer Nutrition Programs in 2003 increased by 13.1 percent in Lugar pilot states, while participation in the rest of the country decreased by 2.5 percent.

The successful Lugar pilot strategy is expected to further help expand summer feeding in 2005. In June 2004, as part of child nutrition reauthorization, Congress voted to extend the Lugar pilot rules to more states (19 total) and to more types of sponsors (non-profit as well as public institutions). FRAC and its allies are working on implementation strategies to realize the potential of these and other provisions of the new child nutrition reauthorization law.

America's Second Harvest President Robert Forney said, "FRAC's report underscores how important it is for food banks and other community groups as well as schools and public agencies to use the new opportunities Congress has just given us to get more federally-funded meals to hungry children in the summer months."

Since the steps in the reauthorization fall far too short of a fully adequate solution to the summer hunger problem, the FRAC report makes specific recommendations for federal, state and local government actions to increase summer meal service to children. "We welcome the improvements contained in the 2004 child nutrition reauthorization, but we will begin looking right away for opportunities in appropriations and other vehicles to increase access further," said Weill. "State and local government officials all can make a difference too for hungry children -- from passing state legislation and taking federal options to reduce red tape, to conducting outreach, providing leadership, and acting as program sponsors."

During the school year, school lunches and breakfasts can provide more than one half of the nutrients low-income children consume every weekday. When children lose access to these meals, they and their families are hard-pressed to fill the gap.

The SFSP is a program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provides funds for eligible sponsoring organizations (schools, public agencies and non-profits) to serve nutritious meals in summer to children 18 or younger at approved sites that are in low-income areas, or that serve a group of children most of whom are low-income. NSLP, also operated by USDA, provides per meal cash reimbursements to serve nutritious school meals to low-income children in school during the summer.

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The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition.

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