Despite the growing number of low-income children in need of nutritious meals and snacks, Florida passed up $20 million in federal funding to serve more kids during the summer months last year, a recently-released by the Food Research and Action Center confirmed. Although record numbers of children are eligible for free and reduced-priced meals, Florida saw a modest increase of 9.6 percent in the Summer Nutrition Programs between July 2009 and July 2010.
According to the report, 158,893 low-income children in Florida participated in the Summer Nutrition Programs in July 2010, up from 144,916 who did so the year before. Low-income children participating in the Summer Food Service Program alone, rose by a mere 2.5 percent, from 134,331 in 2009 to 137,693 in 2010.
By comparison, during the 2009-2010 school year, over 1.1 million Florida children participated in the National School Lunch Program, the report states.
While Florida has recently mandated that certain schools with a high proportion of low-income students operate the Summer Nutrition Programs, some state agencies such as the Arizona Department of Education have taken aggressive steps to grow the program, recruiting more sponsors and sites and conducting outreach to families.
On Tuesday, Orlando Magic, in conjunction with Florida Hospital and the Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger, kicked off an awareness campaign promoting “Summer Break Spot” sites, as part of the federally-funded Summer Nutrition Programs. Magic guard, J.J. Redick, Magic Community Ambassadors Nick Anderson and Bo Outlaw spent time speaking to the youth about living a healthy lifestyle and eating right all summer long.
As only 1 in 7 low-income kids in Florida participates in the Summer Nutrition Programs, the Magic is helping spread the word that many children are failing to take advantage of free and reduced-price meals.
Florida ranked 26th nationwide, in July 2010, in terms of low-income kids’ participation in the Summer Nutrition Programs. The District of Columbia grabbed the top spot reaching more than 80 percent of their low-income children. Other top performers were New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Delaware.
“Schools need to re-commit to meeting the nutritional needs of their students during the summer, even if they scale back summer school”, the authors of the report state. “It is in a school’s best interest to ensure that its students have adequate nutrition during the summer so they return to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn.”
