For Immediate Release: 6/1/15
Contact: Celia Cole, 512.590.0659 or ccole@feedingtexas.org
Austin, TX – Just twelve out of 100 low-income children in Texas who need summer meals receive them, according to a new national report released today. On an average summer day in 2014, 273,655 low-income Texas children received summer meals, a decrease of two percent from the previous summer.
“It’s troubling to see participation fall when most other states are celebrating increases,” said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas. “Texas needs to seek alternative ways to feed our children when school lets out, and take advantage of federal flexibility where it is available.”
The report, Hunger Doesn’t Take A Vacation, is an annual analysis of data by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). It measures the success of federal Summer Nutrition Programs at the national and state levels by comparing the number of children receiving summer meals to the number of children receiving free or reduced-price school lunches during the regular school year. By this measure, twelve low-income children in Texas ate summer meals for every 100 who ate school lunch during the regular school year. Nationally, the ratio was 16:100, an increase from the previous year.
Low participation means missed meals for children and missed dollars for the state. If Texas had reached forty children with summer food for every 100 low-income children who get school lunch during the regular school year, it would have received an additional $51,175,960 in federal reimbursements, more than any other state.
The report noted an annual increase in meals served in June but a decrease in July and August. This suggests that Texas schools are increasing the number of children fed during summer school, but the nonprofit community is unable to match these efforts when summer school ends. Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted a successful experiment to feed low-income children in El Paso during the summer through the established SNAP and WIC programs.
The full report is available on the FRAC website. Texas families can find nearby summer meal sites on the Texas Square Meals website, by calling 211, or texting FOODTX to 877-877.
Feeding Texas leads a unified effort for a hunger-free Texas.
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