Park and recreation agencies: helping to end childhood hunger: at a time when our country is making plans to improve children's educational achievement, research demonstrates that being well-fed is an important first step towards that goal.

Hunger still exists in America and may be on the rise, especially considering current economic conditions. According to the USDA, the number of children in hungry/food-insecure households increased from 10.4 million in 1997 to approximately 12 million in 1998 and 1999. Hunger disproportionately impacts children, who are nearly twice as likely as adults to be living in hungry/ food-insecure households.

Malnutrition in children is associated with stunted physical development and impeded cognitive development. Hungry children have difficulty learning and paying attention. Hunger is linked to lower test scores, behavior problems, tardiness and absenteeism. Many children who complain of stomachaches and headaches at school are actually experiencing symptoms of hunger. At a time when our Country is making plans to improve children's educational achievement, research demonstrates that being well-fed is an important first step towards that goal. Nutrition programs are cost-effective, proven interventions that help children to learn and grow.

RESOURCES FOR FEEDING HUNGRY CHILDREN

Federal child nutrition programs provide funds for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and (sometimes) dinner so that children can be fed year round. These programs are entitlements, which mean that every eligible child can receive meals if local sponsors are available.

Each year, millions of children participate in these programs. Yet they are reaching only a small portion of the children in need, in part because too few organizations, including public parks and recreation agencies, are sponsoring nutrition programs.

Local agencies can serve meals and snacks through several USDA nutrition programs: the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACP), and the Special Milk Program (SPM). The meals served through these programs must meet national nutrition guidelines

Alter School Snacks and Meals.

"Some of these kids are dropped off at 6:30 in the morning [for a before school program]. They start eating lunch at 11:30 and by the time 3:15 rolls around, they are pretty hungry," observes Awilda Lopez, youth services assistant for the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Park and Recreation Department. In fact in some schools, children are served lunch as early as 10:30 am. The Child and Adult Care Food Program provides after school programs snacks, and in some cases meals, if the program offers educational or enrichment activities. Park and recreation agencies can also be reimbursed through CACFP for food served during holidays, vacations, and weekends over the school year.

Park and recreation agencies can be reimbursed for serving snacks to children age 18 and under through CACFP. To qualify, the program must be located in a low-income area where 50% or more of the children in a nearby elementary, middle or high school qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. The program is reimbursed at the highest rate of reimbursement for the snacks it serves (57 cents per snack).

If the program is not located in a low-income area, then only children age 12 and under are eligible for snacks, and the reimbursement is based upon the household income of the child. Schools already collect this information to qualify children for free or reduced-price school meals. They are allowed to share eligibility information with agencies (such as parks and recreation departments) that participate in CACFP and other child nutrition programs. Ask schools to share this information. Otherwise, collect income eligibility forms from the children in the program.

Six states (DE, IL, MI, MO, NY, OR, and PA) were recently chosen for a new dinner option that allows children age 18 and under to receive suppers.

This new option operates under the same rules as serving snacks: by being located in a low-income area they receive the highest rate of reimbursement for all suppers ($2.09 per meal plus commodities or cash in lieu of commodities).

In states that are not eligible for the supper option, only children age 12 and under are eligible for meals and the reimbursement is based upon the household income of the children. Programs can serve both dinner and a snack as long as there are three hours between each meal service.

Another way that park and recreation agencies can serve snacks to children 18 and under is if they operate a school-sponsored after school program. The National School Lunch Program will provide funding for food if a local school will take on the fiscal responsibility and administer the NSLP for the agency. Snacks are reimbursed at the highest rate, if your program is located in a low-income area. If not, snacks are reimbursement based on the household income of the children in the program.

Leslie Murphy, program coordinator for the City of Baltimore, Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks, believes that their after school programs are giving children opportunities to eat much healthier foods than they would choose for themselves at vending machines or neighborhood stores. "The children are really encouraged not to go to vending machines or to the store."

The St. Petersburg Recreation Department asks site coordinators to unplug vending machines when snacks are served through the CACFP program. "I don't know another way that you can grab chocolate out of a child's mouth and put a nice, healthy peanut-butter snack and fruit juice in place of it," states Alberta Gilholm, the coordinator of after school programs. "Usually a kid's energy is starting to run down about 4 pm, and it tides them until they can get some dinner. And for some of the kids, their dinner is `yick.' It makes you feel really good that you can put good food in their mouths."

"Some centers go above and beyond by preparing meals at least once a week that they're not getting reimbursed for--they do it because kids eat it," adds Murphy.

Summer Food Service Program.

"There are kids out there that are not eating in the summertime, I know that for a fact ... There are a lot of kids in shelters and their families are struggling. During the school year, we know they'll get nutritious meals, but once summertime hits, I know kids are going without," declares Roy Fletcher, recreation coordinator for elementary and summer programs of Metro Parks in Takoma, Washington.

The summer is an especially difficult time for low-income families who depend upon school meals to feed their children during the school year. Each summer, many low-income children are eligible to eat meals through the SFSP but only 14% of all eligible children are fed through this program. During the 2000 school year, 15.2 million children ate free and reduced lunches, whereas only 2.1 million children ate these lunches in the summer. These numbers mean that almost 13 million children that could be eating healthy meals through USDA summer nutrition programs are not being fed. Park and recreation agencies can play an important role in making up the difference by feeding children in their communities.

Local public entities, non-profit organizations, churches, and schools can sponsor the Summer Food Service Program to serve up to two meals a day. A site is eligible if it is located in a low-income area where 50% or more children qualify for subsidized meals (open site), or if more than 50% of the children in the program are low-income (up to 185 percent of the poverty line) and qualify individually for subsidized meals (enrolled site).

Again, applications for the children that are on file in the schools can also be used by park and recreation agencies. Both open and enrolled sites receive the same reimbursement rate for all the meals, which are served free to all the children.

Summer meals and snacks complement learning and recreation opportunities. According to Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, "Through such programs we will continue to make our parks more accessible and enjoyable for our city's youth. We are not only providing lunches, we are engaging children in fun recreational activities at our parks."

Some local agencies go beyond simply serving meals. For example, the City of Sacramento (California) Department of Parks and Recreation hands out USDA nutrition cookbooks and coloring books, so the children eating meals can also learn about the healthy foods they are eating. In Las Cruces, New Mexico, children in the summer camp eat lunch and play nutrition games such as "pin the food on the pyramid." And in Indiana, Indy Parks and Recreation partners with the Indianapolis Art Center and the Indianapolis Zoo to provide learning opportunities to children in their summer programs. The Indianapolis Art Center brings a traveling arts and crafts van to lunch sites and the zoo brings a variety of animals (at times that do not violate safety standards).

Special Milk Program.

The USDA Special Milk Program is available only to agencies that do not participate in either the Summer Food Service Program or the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The program reimburses agencies at 14.5 cents for each half-pint of milk they serve. Children are eligible to receive free milk based on their household income level. If a child's income level is above 185 percent of the poverty line, the child has the option to buy milk at the program.

NUTRITION PROGRAMS SUPPORT FAMILIES AND PROGRAMS

The healthy foods that children eat in these programs help them to focus their attention and to learn, both in school and after school. Nutrition programs reduce the stress that many low-income parents experience because of limited resources to feed their children.

"It helps us because summer rec programs go from nine to four, and parents know kids will be able to eat something throughout the day," affirms Robert Nunez, Recreation Leader II at Las Cruces. With the SFSP in place, parents need not worry about providing lunches to their children while their children are attending summer camp.

The nutrition programs also provide a stable funding source for child and youth recreation programs, allowing them to expand and improve services. For example, an after school program in a low-income area that serves snacks to 35 children daily can be reimbursed up to $3,700 per school year. The reimbursement rate for dinners is based on the household income of the children, but an after school program that serves predominantly low-income children could receive up to $14,000 per school year for serving 35 suppers daily through the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Tips for Park and Recreation Departments

* Contact the state child nutrition agency. Learn about local efforts to feed hungry children. Visit www.fns.usda.gov/cnd and www.frac.org. Should the nutrition programs be expanded? Are there enough summer sites? How many children in recreation programs would be eligible? Are nearby schools serving free or reduced lunches to more than 50 percent of their students? Local and state anti-hunger advocates can help answer questions. State agencies frequently offer technical assistance for nutrition applications.

* Work with your community. Parents, city officials, schools, private groups, nonprofit agencies, churches, the state agency, and child and anti-hunger advocates can be important allies. Park and recreation nutrition program sponsors can ensure that children in other youth programs also receive meals. Metro Parks Takoma and the Sacramento Summer Food Program provide lunches to children in summer programs at churches and other non-profit agencies that don't serve lunches in those cities.

* Use innovative outreach strategies to recruit children. In Sacramento, the Recreation Department and the Hunger Commission have produced materials in at least five languages and information about the SFSP program is available in 27 languages through a publicly accessible "InfoLine." In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Park and Recreation Department gives fliers to schools that go out to every family that has children in schools and advertises in newspapers and on radio with public service announcements. The City of Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks' staff talks about nutrition programs on local TV news or cable TV. The St. Petersburg Department of Leisure contacts churches to spread the word and advertises in school newsletters before the end of each school year.

* Negotiate with vendors to meet your needs. Most park and recreation agencies choose to use the schools' vendor, but they may use others if they choose. Some agencies pick up the meals or snacks from the vendors and others arrange for site delivery. Logistics depend on the capacity to refrigerate foods. As for the kind of foods offered, Barbara Milton of St. Petersburg notes, "We try and serve more of what we have found to be popular foods. We made arrangements with a vending company to serve hot pizza once a week. The kids love it ... Our vendor is very flexible. We had a contract for them to prepare chicken salad sandwiches, and the kids didn't like them. The vendor said let's try chicken breasts, and that went over." She advises park and recreation agencies to write into their vending contract room for flexibility and closely monitor the vendor to avoid problems. Frozen sandwiches are a problem, for example. Angie Dye, of Indy Parks and Recreation observed that it is more profitable for a vendor to provide all of the lunches for all of the sites, thus multiple sites may be an important incentive for vendors.

* Establish a record keeping system before the program starts. The state agency can assist in setting up a documentation system based on required records. Staff serving meals/snacks should understand the reporting system and required documentation. Many agencies hire a nutrition program coordinator to ensure that the program runs smoothly. The costs of a record keeping system can be reimbursed.

Available food nutrition programs

Program   Food         Age            Eligibility

CACFP     Snacks       13 through     Low-Income Area
                       18

CACFP     Snacks       12 and under   Low-Income Area or Individual
                                      Household Income

CACFP     Meals        12 and under   Individual Household Income

CACFP     Meals in     18 and under   Low-Income Area
          DE, IL,
          MI, MO,
          NY, OR and
          PA

NSLP      Snacks       18 and under   Low-Income Area or Individual
                                      Household Income

SFSP      Meals        18 and under   Low-Income Area or Individual
                                      Household Income

SMP       Milk         18 and under   Household Income in areas
                                      where agencies don't use SFSP
                                      or CACFP

Resources

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) technical assistance to educators, public agencies, and non-profit groups. www.frac.org.

United States Department of Agriculture. www.usda.gov.

American School Food Service Association. www.asfsa.org.

Building Blocks Newsletter. Food Research & Action Center (continuing).

Community Nutrition Action Kit. Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A Guide to Starting the Summer Food Service Program. Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (1999).

Hunger Doesn't Take A Vacation: A Status Report on the Summer Food Service Program for Children. Food Research & Action Center (1999).

School's Out, Let's Eat: FRAC's Guide to Using the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to Expand Afterschool Opportunities for Children. Food Research & Action Center (1997).

Maximizing Federal Food and Nutrition Funds for Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives: A Strategy Brief. Volume I, Number 3, the Finance Project (2000).

50 Ways to Run the Summer Food Program on a Low Budget: A Guide for a Cost-Effective SFSP. Center on Hunger and Poverty, Tufts University (1997).

Crystal Weedall, MSW, and Erica Shane Hamilton, MA, are the authors of "Park and Recreation Agencies: Helping End Childhood Hunger" on page 66. Weedall is a senior policy analyst with the Food Research and Action Center. She has an MSW from Washington University and a BA from Carroll College. Hamilton is a policy associate with the National Recreation and Park Association. She holds an MA in community psychology from Georgia State University and a BA in sociology-psychology from Wesleyan University.