Revolutionizing Summer Meal Programs: How Schools Are Adapting to Reach More Hungry Children

As the school year winds down, Samantha Figueroa, the food operations manager for Caroline County Public Schools in Maryland, is gearing up for a summer unlike any other. While her colleagues may be looking forward to a well-deserved break, Figueroa and her team are preparing to operate 24 meal distribution sites across the district, a significant increase from the nine schools they serve during the academic year.

Empowering Schools to Reach More Families in Need

Adapting to a Changing Landscape

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for significant changes in the way schools approach summer meal programs. With emergency waivers in place, schools and nonprofits were able to explore new, more flexible approaches to feeding students, even as they were learning from home. This experience has shown the potential for non-congregate meal service, where meals are packaged and delivered to communities rather than served in a central location.

A Policy Shift with Far-Reaching Implications

The policy change that has enabled this shift was quietly tucked into a December 2022 spending bill, led by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and John Boozman (R-Arkansas). The new legislation not only authorizes a program to provide extra funds for low-income parents' summer groceries but also eliminates the requirement for rural areas to serve meals communally. This seemingly small detail has the potential to significantly impact food-insecure households, especially in rural communities where transportation and access to centralized meal sites can be limited.

Embracing the Challenges of Logistics

While the policy change may seem straightforward, the logistics of implementing non-congregate meal service are anything but simple. School food professionals and child hunger organizations gathered at the No Kid Hungry Summer Nutrition Summit in January to discuss the complexities of finding hungry children, preparing and packing meals, and delivering them while adhering to USDA regulations. Figueroa and her team have navigated these challenges, drawing on their experiences during the pandemic to streamline their operations and ensure efficient meal distribution.

Leveraging Pandemic Lessons

The pandemic forced schools and nonprofits to adapt quickly, and many found that the non-congregate approach was more effective in reaching families in need. Figueroa's team, for example, began delivering meals to neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and mobile home sites, discovering where the greatest need was. Similarly, Feeding Southwest Virginia, a nonprofit that runs summer meal programs, saw the pandemic as a "pilot program" for non-congregate service, and the challenges they faced during that time have made them more resilient and adaptable.

Expanding Reach and Impact

The policy change has also had a significant impact on the reach of these summer meal programs. In January, the USDA revised its definition of "rural," more than doubling the number of Virginia schools that qualify for the non-congregate option, from 50 to 120. This means that even more families in remote and underserved areas will have access to the nutritious meals they need during the summer months.

A Transformative Moment for Child Nutrition

As Figueroa and her colleagues work tirelessly to ensure that no child goes hungry this summer, they are acutely aware of the significance of this moment. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small has described it as a "historic moment," one that can "change the trajectory of [children's] lives" by providing them with the nutrition they need. By embracing the flexibility and accessibility of non-congregate meal service, schools and nonprofits are poised to make a profound impact on the lives of food-insecure children across the country.