The challenge of reaching hungry kids when school is out

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JUDY WOODRUFF: For American children, summer is
supposed to be a time of fun and games, but, for many, it is also
a time of true need.


During the school year, roughly 22 million children in this
country get free and reduced-price lunch. In the summer, those
numbers drop dramatically. Just under four million have access to
subsidized meals.


There are 50,000 locations providing summer meals, but reaching
those who need the food can be a challenge.


WATCH: Hunger a persistent problem for poor
Americans as Republicans mull SNAP cuts


Special PBS correspondent Lisa Stark of our partner Education
Week traveled to Nebraska to see how one food bank is trying to
fill the gap.


LISA STARK: It’s a scorching summer day in
Plattsmouth, Nebraska, about 40 minutes south of Omaha, as the
food truck lumbers into view. Despite the heat, families are
lining up for lunch at what’s called Kids Cruisin’ Kitchen.


BECKY HAM, Parent: They get milk. They get fruit
and vegetables. It’s really a nice program.


LISA STARK: Becky Ham and her children rely on
the food truck a few times a week.


BECKY HAM: We started doing this about three
summers ago when my husband lost his job right before the end of
the school year. And we were really panicked about how we were
going to make everything work.


LISA STARK: Ham’s husband has a new job, but the
budget remains tight. The family still qualifies for free school
lunches, and is thankful for the summer help.


BECKY HAM: It’s really helping kids out. It’s
really helping families out when they need it.


LISA STARK: Kids Cruisin’ Kitchen was launched
six years ago by Omaha’s Food Bank for the Heartland and
Salvation Army.


With four food trucks and 10 fixed locations, it serves 1,300
children a day.


Do you get enough to eat at the food truck?


MARLINE AHMED, Kindergartener:  They give
us a lot of meals.


LISA STARK: A lot of meals and a lot of food?


MARLINE AHMED: Yes.


LISA STARK: Yes?


Susan Ogborn is the food bank president.


Who are you trying to help? Who’s your target here for the summer
meals?


SUSAN OGBORN, President, Food Bank for the
Heartland: Primarily, the children of the working poor. They are
the folks who won’t tell you that they need help. They are the
folks whose children qualify for free or reduced price-lunches.


LISA STARK: Preparing these meals begins early
in the morning in an industrial kitchen run by an Omaha area
school district. They make meals for Kids Cruisin’ Kitchen and
other summer meal programs.


JACKIE CAMBRIDGE, Contract Meal Services,
Westside Community Schools: We do about 3,000 meals a day during
the summer.


LISA STARK: In less than three hours on this
morning, corn dogs are cooked, bananas packed, chocolate milk
readied, sack lunches bagged, chicken patties, fruit and veggies
prepped for later in the week.


JACKIE CAMBRIDGE: It’s the five food groups.
It’s grains, meat, fruit, vegetables, milk.


LISA STARK: Meals are paid for by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, $3.83 each, and must meet government
nutrition standards, which are a bit looser in the summer.


Jackie Cambridge manages this summer meal service.


JACKIE CAMBRIDGE: There’s always a whew when we
get it out the door. And then we just hope that it’s getting to
kids in need, and that they’re enjoying it, and we do it all
again the next day.


LISA STARK: Shortly after 9:00 a.m., the Kids
Cruisin’ Kitchen truck pulls up to load its food, hot meals to
go. The truck makes four stops each weekday during most of the
summer break.


After that first stop in Plattsmouth, it’s off to a public
library, followed by a public housing project, then onto an
affordable housing development, areas where more than half of
children quality for free and reduced-price lunch, although
anyone is welcome.


CHILD: You got corn dogs today? Bananas.


LISA STARK: Summer lunches are an outgrowth of
subsidized school lunches, which expanded in the 1960s.


NARRATOR: A good lunch provides from a third to
one-half of the student’s daily needs.


LISA STARK: As part of President Lyndon
Johnson’s war on poverty.


LYNDON JOHNSON, Former President of the United
States: Children just must not go hungry.


LISA STARK: The programs have grown enormously.
Today, 85 percent of all breakfasts served at schools and 73
percent of school lunches are subsidized by the USDA; 12 million
students depend on breakfast, 22 million on lunch. Nationwide,
nearly 20 percent of children under age 18 live in poverty.
That’s 14.5 million children.


LAURA HATCH, Director of National Partnerships,
No Kid Hungry: Sometimes, schools are providing the only meals
that kids get during the week.


LISA STARK: Laura Hatch is With No Kid Hungry, a
national advocacy group trying to reduce childhood hunger. She
says school meals make a big difference.


LAURA HATCH: We know that kids that eat
breakfast do better on math tests. We know that serving breakfast
as part of the school day can actually keep kids in their seat
and lessen absenteeism.


LISA STARK: Serving school meals is easier.
Students are all in one place. Summer meals are tougher. The food
has to get to where the children are.


To make it work, the food bank hires 10 temporary staffers, and
relies on 200 volunteers from Mutual of Omaha.


This is Gary Hering’s third year helping out. He understands
hunger.


GARY HERING, Volunteer, Mutual Omaha: There were
times when, as a family, I know we struggled, and we’d go visit
relatives just to eat, you know, have food every day.


LISA STARK: Do you think that’s true for some of
these kids? Or what do you think?


GARY HERING: You bet. That’s the best part about
it today, that these kids aren’t going to be hungry at lunch.


LISA STARK: Despite all this effort by the food
bank and others, Nebraska ranks near the bottom of all 50 states
when it comes to summer meals. For every 100 children who depend
on the school lunch program, only eight are getting help during
the summer.


That’s according to the Food Research and Action Center, which
found that, last year, nationwide, that gap between filling the
need during the school year and the summer got wider.


It’s especially difficult to reach children in rural areas. They
are spread out, and USDA rules require all summer meals to be
served and eaten in one place at one time.


WOMAN: You guys going to eat it over here today,
OK?


LISA STARK: Regulars, like Michelle Brown and
her sisters, are well aware of the rules.


CHILD: You just have to, like, eat here, and you
have to come on time.


LISA STARK: USDA has a pilot program in seven
states and two tribal areas to help families in need during the
summer by temporarily increasing food stamps benefits.


Advocates would like this program offered more widely.


Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who recently visited a summer
meal site in Washington, D.C., says he’s open to the idea.


SONNY PERDUE, U.S. Agriculture Secretary: I
don’t think any of us want to fast over the summer, so just
because school stops doesn’t mean that the needs for good,
nutritious, healthy food and a good environment doesn’t stop.


LISA STARK: The food bank’s Susan Ogborn is
eager to see regulations relaxed to make it easier to expand
summer meals.


SUSAN OGBORN, President, Food Bank for the
Heartland: The problem is, children are hungry every day. And so
we hope that Secretary Perdue and the rest of his team at USDA
get their rules and regulations figured out pretty quickly.


LISA STARK: For now, the food bank will continue
to roll along with its current program, hoping one day to reach
many more children, but committed to the mostly satisfied
customers it already has.


What do you think about the food truck?


ALUAL AKUEI, Third Grader:
I like it, but I would love it if they added donuts.


LISA STARK: Maybe next summer.


For the PBS NewsHour and Education Week, I’m Lisa Stark in Omaha,
Nebraska.


JUDY WOODRUFF: We love donuts, too.


Editor’s Note: We mistakenly referred to the
Food Research and Action Center as the Food Research and Action
Network. A correction has been made in the transcript.


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