Book Description

Many families rely on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded school lunch and breakfast programs to make the family's food budget stretch, improving their food security throughout the school year. These programs feed about 31 million students annually. During the summer where schools are not in session, food security decreases. The USDA developed the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) to address this problem. The SFSP funds state administrators who contract with local sponsors, typically schools, nonprofit organizations, summer camps, and local government agencies to provide meals to low-income children. These meals, along with summertime school lunches, where available, have been found to reduce the prevalence of food insecurity. For families living in rural America, rates of poverty and food insecurity are among the highest in the country, yet of all the SFSP sites, less than one-third are located in rural communities. Not only can fewer rural children participate in the summer programs, but even when the programs are available, rural children participate less than children in more urban areas. This brief outlines the results of an exploratory study of potential barriers to locating more programs in rural areas through sponsorship and to participation in those programs by rural children. The study concluded that the lack of transportation and long distances to Summer Food Service Program sites are the largest reported barriers to rural program implementation and participation. (Contains 19 endnotes.).