Participation in summer nutrition programs keeps falling

Summer meal participation continues to drop compared to previous years, a new report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) reveals.

A little over 2.8 million children participated in summer nutrition programs on an average day in July 2023, according to the report. This was a decrease of 170,926 children compared to July 2022.

Summer lunch participation fell by 5.7% in July 2023 compared to July 2022. During July 2023, only 15.3 kids received summer lunch for every 100 who received a free or reduced-price school lunch during the previous school year.

Participation in summer lunch was slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels, however, with 30,533 additional children participating in July 2023 compared to July 2019.  

FRAC has a goal of reaching 40 children with a summer lunch for every 100 children who received free or reduced-price lunch during the year. Vermont was the only state to meet that benchmark serving an average of 54.4 children lunch in the summer for every 100 who qualify for free or reduced-price meals during the year.

Summer breakfast participation also fell. In July 2023, 287,096 fewer children participated in summer breakfast when compared to July 2022. This represents a decrease of 15.9%.

In addition, participation in summer breakfast in 2023 was lower that pre-pandemic levels. When comparing summer breakfast participation between 2023 and 2019, 2,886 fewer children received breakfast in July 2023 when compared to July 2019.

The drop in summer meals participation during 2023 marks a continuing trend for summer meals. Participation in summer meal programs has been falling since 2022.

The report’s authors note the reason for the falling participation is likely due to the expiration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) child nutrition waivers, which allowed operators to serve summer meals in areas that did not meet the USDA requirement that at least 50% of students in the area be from low-income families and permitted all summer meal programs to offer grab-and-go meals. The loss of the waivers are also likely responsible for the drop in school meal participation at the nation's largest school districts since the waivers also allowed school districts to feed all students free of charge during the school year. 

FRAC recommends that Congress work to pass legislation that would expand summer meal access by eliminating the low-income threshold required to operate a summer meal site, provide more funding for summer meal programs and more.

“Maximizing the opportunities available this summer and beyond will be critical to ensuring that children have the nutrition, and the education and enrichment programming, they need to learn and thrive,” FRAC Interim President Crystal FitzSimons said in a statement. “Now is the time to recommit to ending summer hunger, and more must be done.”