FACTS
Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act
Summer Feeding Service Program
OVERVIEW
Nearly 31.8% or 23.9 million U.S. children ages
2-19 are overweight or obese1 and it is
projected that 42% of the country will be obese
by 2030, up from about one-third today.2
Currently, it is estimated that America spends
$14.3 billion annually to treat obese children.3,
4,5
The need to create and continue federally
funded programs to address childhood obesity
is enormous.
Federal nutrition programs have been
successful in combating childhood obesity by
increasing access to healthy meals; economists
estimate that receipt of a free or reduced price
school lunch reduces obesity rates by at least
17%.6 One of those programs is the Summer
Feeding Service Program (SFSP), which
provides nutritious meals for the summer
months. SFSP can help alleviate the risk of
young children potentially having a BMI gain
during summer vacation by continuing to
provide nutritious meals when schools are not
in session.7
Eating more fruits,vegetables, and whole
grains, and limiting intake of sugar-sweetened
beverages and sodium are important strategies
for consuming a healthy diet; these are key
priorities for the American Heart Association as
we try to improve the cardiovascular health of
the U.S. population by 20% by 2020.
BACKGROUND
The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS)
administers various programs to address the
nutritional needs of children. The two largest
programs, the National School Lunch Program
(NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP),
provide nutritious meals and snacks for children
who attend public and non-profit private
schools, as well as those who live in residential
child care institutions. An additional program,
the Summer Feeding Service Program (SFSP),
was established in 1968 to cover the summer
months when children eligible for NSLP and
SBP lose access to the programs only offered
during the school year.8
School districts and
other organizations
that sponsor SFSP are
reimbursed in various
ways. SFSP meals
must meet USDA
nutritional guidelines.9
Current SFSP
regulations lay out
meal patterns that
each lunch must meet:
one serving of milk, two servings of fruits and/or
vegetables, and one serving of grain and
protein.10
THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROGRAM
Congress has identified and worked to address
some challenges within the SFSP program.
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 200111
This act addressed the issue of how sponsors
reported that programmatic paperwork was
time-consuming and resulted in excessive
administrative costs.12 It authorized a pilot study
in some states to test the effects of a
streamlined administrative process that
reimbursed meals at a fixed rate, dropped the
requirement of sponsors having to report
administrative and operational costs to the state
to receive reimbursements, and also relaxed
restrictions regarding the use of program funds
to pay for operational expenses.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization
Act of 200411
Due to the pilot’s successful outcomes this act
extended the simplified paperwork process to
sponsors and families which further increased
program participation. Together, these
adjustments brought the total number of
participating states to 27 with a concomitant
increase in sponsor and child participation.
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FACT SHEET:
Summer Feeding Service Program
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of
200811
This act extended the simplified SFSP
accounting procedures to all SFSP sponsors
across the nation. This allowed sponsors in all
states to be reimbursed on a per-meal basis
and ultimately helped increase state
participation and involvement.
Food and Nutrition Services Grant 2010-11
Program sponsors noted that the limited hours
of programs and transportation was an issue for
participating children.12 Under the Healthy
Hunger-Free Kids Act, $85 million was granted
to develop and test alternative methods of
providing summer access to food for lowincome children in urban and rural areas.13 The
study focused on three areas: financial
incentives for the sponsors, take-home
backpacks and Summer Electronic Benefits
Transfer for Children. Each area enabled the
children to either get a nutritious meal remotely
or on non-operating days. Participating states
saw an increase in the participation rates.
OTHER CHALLENGES
In response to challenges some sites were
having in meeting the nutritional
recommendations, the Food Research and
Action Center (FRAC) developed a recognition
program, Standards of Excellence. To
encourage nutritional guideline achievement at
SFSP sites, levels are awarded according to
achievement of certain meal requirements.14
Plate waste, food that children select or is
served but not eaten,12 has been a concern for
the program. Plate waste is not just a SFSP
concern and is part of a larger societal trend.
One study found that food waste has increased
from about 30% of the available food supply in
1974 to almost 40% in recent years.15 Food
waste in the SFSP program does occur, but a
Harvard study that looked at NSLP, found that a
short-term investment in the right resources and
staff can alleviate this problem.16 SFSP could
invest in implementing these same innovative
strategies to address this concern.
CURRENT SITUATION
A 2014 FRAC report shows a consistent and
growing demand for the SFSP program. In July
2013, SFSP and NSLP together served lunch to
nearly three million children on an average day
and the total number of children participating
increased by more than 161,000 from 2012 to
2013.17 Both the number of SFSP sponsors and
sites also increased between 2013 and 2012,
with 44 sponsors and 2,370 children added
nationally. In 2013, USDA surpassed its goal
and served seven million more meals in the
summer of 2013 than 2012.17
Individual states have implemented innovative
strategies. For example, Yuma Union High
School in Arizona has expanded from two to 18
sites in over three years by partnering with the
public library. This initiated a work training
program for teenagers to teach them about
food, safety, baking, preparing meals and the
responsibility of holding a job.18
THE ASSOCIATION ADVOCATES
The American Heart Association supports the
SFSP program and encourages Congress to
incorporate the following recommendations into
its consideration of the program as part of the
next child nutrition reauthorization process.
• The nutritional guidelines for various feeding
programs should be standardized so that
there is consistency across them. These
guidelines should specify calorie, sodium
and saturated fat intake, as well as what
types of beverages to serve—similar to the
standars in school meal program and the
Child and Adult Care Feeding Program.
• Current funding should be directed to
support the ongoing and expanded
implementation of the SFSP to address
areas such as accessibility, transportation
and meeting nutritional guidelines. The
funding will enable programs to invest in
resources to address these areas.
1. Cynthia L. Ogden, PhD; Margaret D. Carroll, MSPH; Brian K. Kit, MD, MPH; Katherine M.
Flegal, PhD, Prevalence of Child and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. JAMA.
2014;311(8):806-814
2. Finkelstein, Eric A., et al. "Obesity and Severe Obesity Forecasts through 2030." American
Journal of Preventive Medicine 42.6 (2012): 563-70. Print.
3. Hammond, R. A., and R. Levine. "The Economic Impact of Obesity in the United States."
Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy 3 (2010): 285-95. Print.
4. Cawley J. The economics of childhood obesity. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010;29(3):364–371.
5. Trasande L, Chatterjee S. The impact of obesity on health service utilization and costs in
childhood. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009; 17(9):1749–1754.
6. Gundersen, Craig, Brent Kreider, and John Pepper. "The Impact of the National School Lunch
Program on Child Health: A Nonparametric Bounds Analysis." Journal of Econometrics 166.1
(2012): 79-91. Print.
7. Von Hippel, Paul T., et al. "The Effect of School on Overweight in Childhood: Gain in Body
Mass Index during the School Year and during Summer Vacation." American Journal of Public
Health 97.4 (2007): 696-702. Print.
8. "Analysis of Summer Food Service Program and Food Needs of Nonparticipating Children."
Summer Food Services Program. USDA , n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/SFSPFoodNeeds.pdf>.
9. "Dietary Guidelines for Americans." Dietary Guidelines for Americans. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug.
2014. <http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm>.
10. Summer Food Serve Program. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/sfsp-mealsand-snacks>
11. "Evaluation of the Impact of Enhancement Demonstrations on Participation in the Summer Food
Service Program (SFSP): FY 2011." Food and Nutrition Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.fns.usda.gov/evaluation-impact-enhancement-demonstrations-participationsummer-food-service-program-sfsp-fy-2011>.
12. Gordon, Anne, et al. Feeding Low-Income Children when School is Out: The Summer Food
Service Program. Mathematica Policy Research, 2003. Print.
13. "Report on the Summer Food for Children Demonstration Projects for Fiscal Year 2012." U.S.
Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, A Report to Congress. USDA , n.d.
Web. 1 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2012SFCReporttoCongress.pdf>.
14. Food Research and Action Center. Afterschool Nutrition Standards of Excellence. Web. 24.
Sept. 2014. <http://frac.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/afstandards.pdf>
15. Hall, Kevin D., et al. "The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and its
Environmental Impact." PLoS One 4.11 (2009): e7940. Print.
16. Cohen, Juliana FW, et al. "School Lunch Waste among Middle School Students: Nutrients
Consumed and Costs." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 44.2 (2013): 114-21. Print.
17. "Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation ." Summer Nutrition Status Report 2014. Food Research and
Action Center , n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2014.
18. Model Summer Programs. Web. <http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/summerprograms/model-summer-programs/>.
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