Some school districts try to fill growing summer nutrition gap

Santa Barbara uses a former "taco truck" to bring meals to kids in parks during the summertime.

School'southward out, only Riverside Unified's food services section is not closing down. "Hunger doesn't take a vacation, and neither exercise nosotros," said Rodney Taylor, director of nutritional services for the district.

Each weekday, all summertime long, the district and city have barbecues in 24 parks in low-income neighborhoods. Any child from age 2 through 17 tin eat, no questions asked. The district expects to serve more than half a 1000000 meals through its summer program, with funding from the U.S. Section of Agriculture.

"They're not getting some baloney sandwich in a brown bag, which says, 'here'due south a lunch because you lot're poor,'" Taylor said. "We're saying, 'Come join us for a picnic.'" Each day children have the choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, spicy chicken, or hot links, along with whole-wheat bread, milk, and fresh fruit and vegetables from local organic farmers.

But not all California children are as fortunate. According to a report released Th past California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit arrangement based in Oakland and Los Angeles, more than 2 meg (84 percent) of the children who received federally funded schoolhouse meals during the school year did not get complimentary lunches during the summer in 2011.

When districts throughout California cutting back or eliminated summer school in 2009 because of state budget cutbacks, many children no longer could rely on a good for you lunch when school was not in session. An EdSource report on terminal yr'south summer programs found that about of the state's largest districts enrolled only a fraction of the number of students that had participated earlier the get-go of the Great Recession.

The slide, however, began at least a decade agone, co-ordinate to the California Food Policy Advocates written report. In 2002, more than 800,000 children were participating in the federal summertime meals programme. By 2011, the number had dropped to less than 400,000.

But some districts like Riverside have found means to offer meals, even if they no longer provide summertime school. In some parts of the state, such every bit San Francisco, cities rather than schoolhouse districts accept taken on the job of feeding children. In San Francisco, which also relies on federal funds, meals are provided through summer programs, but extra meals are included for children in the neighborhood who are not participating in the program.

Sharon Ray, manager of the California Section of Teaching's Diet Services Partition, says her section encourages districts to find ways, like Riverside did, to provide healthy meals to children.

Santa Barbara children savour a summer picnic provided by their school district.

"Our goal is for kids to consume healthy meals in the summertime with balanced nutrition and non as well many calories," she said. If it weren't for these programs many children "would end up eating fast food considering it'due south inexpensive," she added. "We want to offer an alternative to that."

Districts can offering gratuitous meals through the federal Seamless Summer meals plan, which requires very little paperwork, she said. Neighborhoods where at least half of the children qualify for the federal meals program during the school year are eligible. The federal Summertime Food Service program, which underwrites Riverside'southward summer food initiative, provides a piddling more back up, just too requires more than paperwork. The reimbursement rates for both programs are a petty more than $3 for each lunch served, typically non enough to comprehend the entire cost of providing the meals.

By mid-June, costless lunches were being offered at most two,500 locations throughout California by schoolhouse districts and other nonprofit organizations, Ray reported. Those sites are in addition to meals offered through summertime programs on school campuses. Information on those programs are non readily available, she said.

Nancy Weiss, director of nutrient services for Santa Barbara's public schools, is besides making sure children in low-income neighborhoods eat this summertime. She is trying a novel arroyo – a Mobile Café. Old "taco trucks," now owned by the schools, travel to local parks. She as well relies on the federal Summer Food Service plan for funding.

"Nosotros cook right on board the truck," Weiss said. "Kids are smelling the burgers when they are cooking. It's more of a funfair atmosphere." The district also provides plastic picnic tables that lay on the grass. "They're picnicking in the park with u.s.."

But even programs that are equally successful equally Riverside's practice not reach all the children who need it. Taylor said he is constantly trying new means to permit parents and children know nigh the program. The district advertises on local radio and television set stations, puts up posters at the schools, and makes robotic calls to the students' homes. Taylor as well does his all-time to let children in neighboring districts know about the program, but he says he has not plant very effective ways to reach those communities.

"Whatsoever district tin can practice this," said Taylor. "Virtually will tell you that they tin can't afford to exercise it. You tin't afford not to do it. Nosotros accept a responsibility to our kids. We are part of this community. If they're at risk, nosotros need to provide for them." Taylor takes an entrepreneurial approach to commune food services to heighten local money to support the programme. For example, the district caters, runs a café, and stores frozen food for the local higher. They then deliver the frozen nutrient to five sites and charge a fee.

Taylor and Weiss say they have had calls from parents in their districts criticizing them for offering the costless summer meals, and saying schools are doing what parents ought to be doing for their children.

Rodney Taylor is director of nutritional services for Riverside Unified.

Taylor, who grew upwardly in Compton, said he knows "hunger far more intimately than I care to admit."

"I'm not going to worry almost whose fault it is," Taylor said. "If I have an ability to provide a safety net to children, that's what I'm going to do."

Weiss gets angry when she hears complaints. "Information technology's not the kids' fault," she said. "Are yous going to testify a signal by starving children?"

In the report, 2012 School's Out…Who Ate? by the California Food Policy Advocates, the authors Matthew Sharp and Tia Shimada recommend that the state have a much more proactive approach to providing summer meals, including:

• State Superintendent Tom Torlakson should initiate and coordinate a state convening to develop legislative, authoritative, and fiscal solutions that will close the gaps in summer learning and summer diet.
• The Legislature should require the state to collect and runway data describing the availability of summer schoolhouse and summer learning programs.
• The California Department of Teaching should promote and monitor implementation of increased outreach requirements included in the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Human activity of 2010.
• Local school nutrition services departments should work with community leaders and customs-based organizations to vend meals, sponsor repast programs, and disseminate information to students/families near available summertime repast sites.
• Summer meal advocates, administrators, and academic partners should develop and implement a summertime diet research agenda to better sympathise what nutrition resources are available to California's low-income students.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2012/some-school-districts-try-to-fill-summer-nutrition-gap/15781