Media Contact:

Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
202-640-1118

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2024 — A new report released today by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) reveals a drop in children participating in the Summer Nutrition Programs following the loss of pandemic-era waivers.

FRAC’s Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report finds that 170,926 fewer children benefited from meals served through the Summer Nutrition Programs in 2023 compared to the previous year. Only 15.3 children received summer lunch for every 100 who received a free or reduced-price school lunch during the previous school year.

“The summer should be about play, adventure, and friends, not rumbling stomachs,” said Crystal FitzSimons, interim president at FRAC. “Summer meals help keep hunger at bay, so that children can enjoy their break and return to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn.”

When the school year ends, millions of children from households with low incomes lose access to the school meals they rely on. The Summer Nutrition Programs, also called summer meals, were designed to replace school meals lost during summer vacation.

These meal programs play an important role in reducing childhood hunger during the summer, and often provide important educational and enrichment programming that combined keep children and teens well-nourished and engaged.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, waivers allowed meal sites to operate in all communities, and sites could offer meals that families could pick up and take home off-site consumption. These waivers were unavailable in summer 2023. Most sites reverted to pre-pandemic operations, and fewer children benefitted from the Summer Nutrition Programs.

Without the waivers, summer meal sites must be located in areas where at least half of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals or at least half of the children served by the site must be eligible, which eliminates access to summer meals in many communities with significant numbers of children who rely on school meals during the school year to keep hunger at bay. The only flexibility that remains is that sites in underserved rural areas can offer meals to families for off-site consumption.

Key findings from the FRAC report:

  • Just over 2.8 million children participated in the Summer Nutrition Programs on an average day in July 2023.
  • Participation in summer lunch decreased by 5.7 percent in July 2023 compared to July 2022.
  • In July 2023, 15.3 children received a summer lunch for every 100 who received a free or reduced-price school lunch during the 2022–2023 school year.
  • Participation in lunch in July 2023 was slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels: 30,533 additional children participated in July 2023 when compared to July 2019 (the last summer before the pandemic).
  • Participation in breakfast in July 2023 was slightly lower than July 2022, with 287,096 fewer children participating in 2023.

To complement summer meals, the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Program, a new permanent program, launched this summer.

Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia, all five U.S. territories, and two Tribes, are participating in the new nationwide Summer EBT Program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Eligible families will receive $120 in federally funded grocery benefits on an EBT card for each school-age child who is eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. By implementing the program, these states, territories, and Tribes, are helping to reduce childhood hunger during the summer.

“Maximizing the opportunities available this summer and beyond will be critical to ensuring that children have the nutrition, and the education and enrichment programming, they need to learn and thrive,” said FitzSimons. “Now is the time to recommit to ending summer hunger, and more must be done.”

FRAC calls on Congress to make summer meals more accessible, including by making more communities eligible to provide summer meals, allowing all sites to serve three meals (instead of two), streamlining operations so summer sites can operate after school and on weekends during the school year, and providing more funding for summer programs, so that more children have access to the meals and the educational and enrichment activities they need during the summer to return to school well-nourished and ready to learn.

Read the full report.

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The Food Research & Action Center improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.