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Seeking Agencies to Sponsor Meal Programs

For Immediate Release: January 24, 2011
Contact: Lynne Richmond
(609) 633-2954

(TRENTON) – New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher today encouraged organizations to help provide meals to children in low-income areas during the summer months when they lack access to school breakfast and lunch programs that operate during the school year.

More than 673,000 children in New Jersey receive free or reduced price meals in their schools under the National School Lunch Program. To ensure those students receive nutritious meals during the summer when schools are closed, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture offers the Summer Food Service Program.

In 2010, only 10 percent of the children in the state participating in the National School Lunch Program had access to nutritious meals in the summer. Eighty-seven organizations in 2010 participated in the Summer Food Service Program to provide nutritious meals to children during the summer.

The federally-funded program reimburses participating organizations for meals served to children who live in areas in which at least 50 percent of the children qualify for free or reduced-price meals under the National School Lunch Program.

Applicants may include public or private nonprofit school food authorities, units of local, municipal, county or state governments, public or private nonprofit organizations, residential summer camps or national youth sports programs.

The Summer Food Service Program began in 1976 as an outgrowth of the National School Lunch Program, which provides meals to low-income children during school hours. The summer program is designed to reach those who are age 18 or younger in economically disadvantaged areas. It also is open to people over 18 who are mentally or physically handicapped and who participate in public or nonprofit private programs established for the disabled.

Organizations approved to sponsor the Summer Food Service Program are responsible for managing the feeding sites that provide the meals to youngsters.

Most participating organizations may be reimbursed for up to two meals a day – lunch and either breakfast or a snack. Those serving primarily migrant children may be reimbursed for up to three meals a day.

Residential camps may serve up to three meals a day, but they are reimbursed only for meals served to children eligible for free or reduced‑price meals under the National School Lunch Program.

In addition to the summer food program, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, Division of Food and Nutrition, administers a number of programs devoted to improving the quality and provision of food to New Jersey residents, in particular those most in need, including school nutrition programs, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

The Division also administers The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which distributes federally-donated commodities to six emergency feeding organizations statewide to distribute federally-donated foods to 793 soup kitchens, food pantries and public feeding sites serving the state's neediest citizens.

For more information on the Summer Food Service Program or to obtain an application, call (609) 292-4498. The deadline for submission of completed applications is June 15, 2011.