The Plan to End Childhood Hunger

Expand reach of summer meals programs

Kids who get by when school is in session thanks to breakfast and lunch programs can be left in the cold when the weather gets hot. By helping all eligible District of Columbia providers of summer programs participate in the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program, we can help make sure that the District’s low-income children and youth get the nutritious food they need, even when school is out for the summer.

We will work to sustain and build on prior participation increases and improvements in the highly successful D.C. Free Summer Meals Program. In 2008, for the sixth straight year, the District’s summer meals program received the top national rank among states for participation.

With support from the District’s Department of Planning, we developed a city-wide map of summer meal sites to ensure that low-income children have access summer meal programs in their neighborhoods throughout the summer vacation. We will work to enhance the nutritional quality of the food served at these summer meal sites and ensure that they offer quality programming in addition to quality food.

Since 2006 we have:

• Continued our leadership role in improving the D.C. Free Summer Meals program to serve more than 26,000 children each summer, up from fewer than 15,000 children in 2002.
• Provided outreach and training to increase the number of sites offering food through the D.C. Summer Meals Program from 301 in 2005 to 329 in 2008.
• Worked with D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation to expand sponsorship of the D.C. Free Summer Meals program.
• Partnered with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Wellness and Nutrition Services to develop criteria for more nutritious options for sites participating in the D.C. Free Summer Meals program.

2009-2010 Goals:

For summer 2009: The tremendous success of the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program will be sustained and the program will grow to reach 80 percent of children eligible for free and reduced-price school meals.

Participating sites will be required to offer 1 percent or non-fat milk, a larger variety of fruits and no deep-fried foods.

2009-2010 Action Plan:

• Complete a map of the city’s summer food sites to assess whether they adequately serve all low-income areas.
• Ensure that the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program continues to reach those most in need as the city’s demographics shift.
• Continue to partner with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Wellness and Nutrition Services to improve the nutritional quality of the food served at summer meal sites.
• Reach out to summer programs not currently participating in summer meal programs, especially those that are faith-based.
• Explore ways to extend the duration of summer meals programs to cover the entire summer break.
• Continue to support the requirement that all D.C. Children’s Youth Investment Trust’s summer program grant recipients participate in the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program.
• Evaluate the quality of the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program’s meal service by implementing the Food Research and Action Center’s “Standards of Excellence for Summer Meals”.
• Provide technical guidance and mini-grants to summer meal sites to improve nutritional quality of summer meals.

Measures of Success

• Ensure that at least 80 percent of eligible District school children participating in free and reduced-price school meals participate in summer meals program.
• Improve quality of food served at summer meal programs based on findings from Food Research and Action Center’s “Standards of Excellence for Summer Meals”.
• Ensure that summer meal sites are distributed proportionately among target populations of low-income children to promote adequate access.