Summer Food Service Rural Expansion Act would extend program that gives underprivileged children access to nutritious meals
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) joined Congressman Todd Platts (PA-19) today in introducing legislation that would provide summer meals to children of low-income families in Pennsylvania and across the country. The Summer Food Service Rural Expansion Act would extend the Summer Food Service Program which provides nourishing meals throughout the summer to children from low-income, rural families when school is out of session.
“Schools work very hard throughout the year to give our children the nutrition they need,” Senator Casey said. “But when school is out, some kids still need help to have a healthy meal. This program has made great progress in doing just that. It is imperative we make it permanent and expand it nationally.”
“This legislation will help serve countless low-income, rural children,” Specter said. “Health is one of our greatest capital assets, and I am pleased to join with Senator Casey and Congressman Platts to fill the nutritional gap faced by families during the summer months.”
“Only one in seven low-income children in Pennsylvania’s rural areas have access to the nutritional help that they need during the summer months,” said Congressman Platts. “This pilot program is helping reverse this trend, but we can, and we must, do better. This legislation builds upon the success we have achieved in Pennsylvania, while providing similar opportunities for needy children across the country.”
The Summer Food Service Rural Expansion Act would make the Rural Summer Food Service Pilot Program permanent and expand it to the rural areas of every state. It would also:
- Make the Summer Food Service Program for rural areas in every state permanent beginning in 2007 and each year thereafter.
- Make permanent the provision making it available to rural areas in which at least 40% of children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.
- Assist states through grants-in-aid and other means in creating and maintaining food service programs for children through service sites such as schools, local government buildings and nonprofit summer camps.
The Rural Summer Food Service program was originally created as a pilot program by the Child Nutrition Act of 2004. Before Congressman Platts sponsored the pilot program in 2004, many schools and agencies in Pennsylvania’s rural areas with relatively high rates of poverty did not participate in the SFSP, given that 50 percent of children in a subject area needed to be eligible for free or reduced price school meals to qualify for enrollment. The pilot program lowered that threshold to 40 percent. Over 175,000 meals were fed to underprivileged children during the two-year pilot program.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education reported that during the first year of the pilot program, total meals served in rural communities increased 11 percent from the previous year. Over the summers of 2005 and 2006, the number of rural sponsors increased 57 percent and the number of sites serving summer meals increased 47 percent. Making the Pennsylvania Rural Pilot program permanent – and expanding it throughout the rest of the country – will help serve countless needy children who may not otherwise be provided nutritious lunches during the summer months.
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