Report: The number of children receiving free summer lunches is down by 45% compared to last year

According to a new report by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), an anti-hunger organization, there was a there was a decrease of almost 2.4 million children receiving free summer lunch when comparing participant data from July 2021 to July 2022. This is a nearly 45% decrease, while the number of children receiving free breakfast dropped by 60% year-to-year.

This, unfortunately, is not because there are fewer children in need of this service. As FRAC reported, the steep decline coincides with “Congress’s delay in extending the pandemic child nutrition waivers that allowed all communities to offer summer meals and provided operational flexibilities,” as well as ‘staffing challenges [and] supply chain distribution.” According to the FRAC, Summer Nutrition Programs — which are funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and administered by individual state governments — provide free meals and snacks to “children 18 and under at sites in low-income communities or that serve primarily low-income children.”

The organization reports that every state saw a decrease in average daily participation in summer lunch from 2021 to 2021, however participation is still higher than pre-pandemic levels. The FRAC reports that there are multiple ways to help feed more children during the summer, including lowering the eligibility threshold for participation in Summer Nutrition Programs, allowing summer meal sites to serve three meals a day and leveraging summer learning funding to assist in the effort.