Jul 19, 2017
Parks and Recreation: Making Summer Meals Healthier
As one of the largest providers of summer meals, local park and recreation agencies around the nation are at the forefront in addressing childhood hunger.
As one of the largest providers of summer meals, local park and recreation agencies around the nation are at the forefront in addressing childhood hunger.
In this guest post, Rachel Gwaltney of the National Summer Learning Association highlights the connection between summer programming and summer meals, and the benefits of both in preventing learning loss and hunger. Summer programs provide the platform for summer meals, which ensure that children have the nutrition they need to focus and learn throughout the day.
SNAP provides monthly benefits to eligible low-income people to purchase food. The average benefit for a single person is $4.40 per day, or $132 a month. I decided to take the SNAP Challenge for five days, which meant I could only spend $22 on food during this time.
In this guest post, Nancy Parello, of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, talks about partnerships and other effective strategies that have increased participation in the state’s Summer Nutrition Programs.
The problem of food insecurity among households with people with disabilities would be far worse if not for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). In an average month in 2015 (pdf), SNAP served an estimated 4.5 million households that included a person with a disability — 1 in 5 of all SNAP households.
