Summer Meals Program Thrives — For Now

New Haven will feed thousands of children meals this summer. It may be harder to do that next summer, thanks to potential changes to the federal funding that helps pay for the food.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro delivered that news while visiting two of the more than 80 sites in the city Monday for the Summer Meals Program.

With the U.S. House of Representatives on summer recess, DeLauro was back home in the Elm City. She said that body’s version of the farm bill — a primary driver of federal food and agriculture policy — could create more hoops for cities like New Haven to jump through to address childhood hunger.

She stopped by Jocelyn Square Park to take in a puppet show being put on by the Hispanic Health Council with a handful of children gathered there for lunch. Zianna, 7, and her brother Jeremy, 6, were in the park with their stepdad when a small school bus emblazoned with the words pictures of fresh fruits and vegetables and the words ​“Free Meals Here For All Kids 18 & Under” pulled up.

“Can we take our food over to where our stepdad is?” Zianna asked DeLauro. In fact, she couldn’t. She and her brother had to eat the food at the table and benches that had been set up. That’s just one of the many rules that govern the summer meals program. And there could be many more rules coming.

Gail Sherry, food services director for the New Haven Public schools, which administers the program, said federal rules require that the children eat where administrators can see them. While they don’t have to eat apart from their parents — Zianna and Jeremy’s stepdad could have joined them — the program couldn’t give their dad any food if he happened to be hungry.

Sherry said she’d love to see some of those types of rules relaxed, but she asked DeLauro to focus on saving the programs that provide 16,000 lunches during the school year and about 5,000 in the summer. Sherry said the program would provide even more meals in the summer but connecting with kids when they’re out of school can be a challenge. Currently the district has two buses that go out at lunchtime and make eight stops; another six buses go out at night.

The summer meals program is just what it sounds like — a program that provides free, U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved meals to children throughout the city over the summer. In New Haven, all children in the city are eligible for a free lunch and dinner in the summer, no questions asked, because the city has ​“community eligibility.” It has that status because more than half of the students who attend the city’s two largest high schools qualify for free and reduced meals during the acadmic year.

That means come summertime, New Haven Public Schools, which administers the program, doesn’t have to try to figure out what children are eligible for a meal or strictly limit where free food can be served. Gail Sherry said prior to receiving that status three or four years ago the program was zoned in such a way that it could only serve children who lived on one side a street in particular neighborhoods.

DeLauro said that eligibility will be in danger if the House version of the farm bill is successful. She said the Senate version of the farm bill does a much better job of preserving programs aimed at hunger. She also noted that some of her House colleagues refuse to support a bill that doesn’t have more restrictions.

“The way things are done now is smooth and it maximizes the opportunity to feed children during the summer,” she said. ​“Hunger doesn’t take a vacation.”

She said the House version of the bill would make things ​“as difficult as possible” by not only eliminating the simplified eligibility status but by creating more restrictions on who can receive the benefits. Some of the individual mandates include work requirements for those who receive benefits. DeLauro said the House bill is designed by her colleagues to severely limit eligibility because they don’t believe in the programs that address hunger like free and reduced lunch program, the summer meals program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

DeLauro pointed out that even in a wealthy state like Connecticut, one in six people are deemed ​“food insecure” and one out of seven don’t know where they’ll find their next meal. Connecticut also is ranked third in the nation for average daily participation in the summer breakfast and lunch program for July 2016 and 2017, according to a June report from the national Food Research & Action Center’s Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report. (Read more about food insecurity specifically in New Haven here.)

“In a land that is unbelievably abundant, kids go to be hungry at night,” she said. ​“That is outrageous.”

During a subsequent roundtable in the cafeteria at Lincoln Bassett School, DeLauro met with representatives for End Hunger Connecticut!, Project Bread, and Witness to Hunger. In the discussion, participant Kimberly Hart was astounded to know that the summer program is underutilized in New Haven. Only about 21 percent of the children in the city who could access the program do.

Sherry said one of the challenges is transportation. The meals are served at locations where kids generally are in the summer local parks, playgrounds, and summer camps. But things like weather — if it’s too hot, or raining — can impact whether kids will come out. Also, some kids are home alone and can’t come out.

Will Clark, the school system’s chief operating officer, said that the district attempts to cluster some sites based on summer programs and camps. For instance, Lincoln Bassett is adjacent to a robust park and splash pad and attracts tons of children. LEAP also hosts a summer program at the school.

Hart, a site leader for Witness to Hunger, recommended that after the initial media blitz. there be follow-up canvassing of neighborhoods to reach more parents. Bridgett Williamson, also with Witness for Hunger, suggested that people work to build better relationships with children and their parents to help spread the word. She volunteered to help do it.

DeLauro said protecting these food programs isn’t partisan.

“This is a value,” she said. ​“It’s not about a program. It’s about kids and eating.”

Parents and children at Lincoln-Bassett knew what time it was when the little bus pulled up. Lucinda Capuano, whom many of the children called Cinderella, and Barbara Libretti could barely unpack the sandwiches before they were swarmed by the children.

Alison Lilly was there with her grandson and two grand-nephews who attend the LEAP summer program at Lincoln Bassett. They were among the crowd of children chowing down on a sandwich, crunching an apple, and drinking a juice box. She noted that the boys are usually ravenous after the program and look forward to the meal. She said it holds them over until dinner.

“I think it’s really good for the kids who don’t get anything to eat but what they get here,” she said.

Mercy Kelechi, a native of Nigeria, said she enjoys bringing her children and in fact, they know better than she does when it’s time for the bus to arrive. She said they often feel full enough that they don’t ask for anything additional to eat.

“It means so much to me,” she said.

Michelle Bogart, Lincoln Basset’s school climate leader, said that it’s always amazing to her that there are rules around hunger. But what she knows for sure is that during the school year, the cafeteria is the happiest place in the school. She said little kids shouldn’t have to make decisions about whether they should save a snack so they’ll have something to eat later.

“But they are making those decision’s every day,” she said.