2002 – The Year of the Child?
 Citing
the threat that poor nutrition poses for Pennsylvania's
children and the tightening of state resources to meet the threat,
Hunger Action's Board of Directors has called
on the Commonwealth to take a closer look
at the opportunities provided by existing child
nutrition programs.
The Board's action occurred at its September
10th meeting in Harrisburg.
"We're coming to the end of a period of sustained
prosperity and public funds will be in shorter supply," said
President Teresa L. Amott. "Yet we haven't completed
our mission. As a Commonwealth we must find
a way to ensure that every child has the nutrition needed for
health and learning. If our economy moves into recession, we won't
have the state funds to do the job. That's why we are asking our
Assembly and our executive agencies to maximize
every opportunity to serve our children with the nutrition programs
funded at the federal level." The Board's
request has been communicated to the Governor's Policy Office
and to members of the General Assembly for consideration as part
of the 2002-03 budget. It includes these specific recommendations.
Summer Food Service Program
When school is out, many children who receive meals
at school are without the nutritional support of school breakfast
and lunch. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides $2.23
per lunch or supper and $1.28 per breakfast (plus administrative
costs) to school districts and community groups
that will sponsor the Program. But because of a lack of sponsors,
only one-quarter of qualifying children currently receive a summer
meal.
Pennsylvania could improve access to summer meals
for these children by encouraging school food
authorities to participate. This could be achieved by offering
incentive payments (Texas has made major progress in this way),
through linkages with other school meals incentives,
and/or through mandates for districts that have a high proportion
of needy children (Missouri's approach).
In addition Pennsylvania could offer expansion grants
that would enable existing SFSP sponsors to attract more local
site supervisors. Integration of the SFSP with existing state-funded
Youth Development Activities would also move the Commonwealth
closer to our goal of ensuring that every child has adequate nutrition.
Federal funds would pay for all the meals provided in this initiative;
state dollars would only be used to increase utilization of the
federal commitment.
Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
WIC is the point of greatest leverage
for the Commonwealth to make a positive impact on the development
of young children in at-risk families. This is so because the
vast majority of low-income infants (at least 80 percent) participate
in WIC.
WIC is the best nutrition program
we have. Yet we currently aren't using all of the food funds that
the USDA makes available. Why not? Since 1998 Pennsylvania WIC
has experienced almost a 14 percent cut in the funding it can
use to provide nutrition services to women and children. To compensate
for this loss, WIC has cut corners. Clinics have been closed,
the wait to see nutrition staff has become longer, and it has
become more difficult for clinics to remain open during hours
that are friendly to working moms. In short, the Program has become
less accessible to the mothers and children whom it is designed
to serve.
Needed is the annual investment
of state funds to ensure the continued availability of highly
accessible services. As a Commonwealth we can't afford to not
have low-income mothers and children in WIC!
Child and Adult Care Food
Program (CACFP)
In recent years there has been a
decline in the number of home child care providers offering meals
through this federal program. Currently only about 10 percent
participate. Through cooperative efforts between the Department
of Education and the Department of Public Welfare, many more small
home-based providers could enroll in CACFP and began using federal
funds to provide nutritious meals to enrolled children. DPW recently
began to strengthen requirements for home-based childcare providers
that care for DPW-subsidized children. Now is the right time to
foster a stronger link with the nutrition programs offered by
PDE.
School Breakfast Program
As noted elsewhere in this issue, the current state
funding incentive fails to challenge school districts to strengthen
their breakfast programs. Some districts collect the state incentive
while serving only a handful of students. Needed is a graduated
incentive that challenges school districts to improve participation
from year to year.
"This entire initiative can
be accomplished for under $5 million," said Amott."The result
will be higher utilization of federal child nutrition programs,
which in turn will contribute to healthier and smarter children.
This is a smart investment, and one we can afford."
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