Budget Cuts, Economy Affected Summer Meals Programs

Andrea Orellana eats lunch at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, Md., one of several Montgomery County sites that offered free summer lunches for children.

—Xiaomei Chen/The Washington Post/Getty Images

By Mary Ann Zehr

Budget cuts for transportation and a scaling-back of summer school led to fewer children getting free lunches this summer in at least one school district, while economic pressures on families in other locations drove up participation in free or reduced-price meals programs elsewhere.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t yet reported data for participation this year in free or reduced-price summer meals programs, but directors of food services in several districts credit the ailing economy with driving participation either up or down, depending on how programs are implemented.

The recession affected participation in nutrition programs funded by the Department of Agriculture last summer, according to an analysis of federal data by the Food Research and Action Center , a Washington-based nonprofit organization. That group, known as FRAC, reported in June that the department’s two summer meals programs—the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Lunch Program —together served 73,000 fewer children on an average day in July 2009 than in July 2008. An average of 2.8 million children were served each day in July of last year, according to the
analysis .