Summer Food Programs

just the possibility preserving have resisted the nano valley and their mail we have a lot of this especially during the summer we'll have more and we see them all either they don't throw anything away because there are so many were children in this neighborhood any child who comes to power can get a free lunch no question that on this date a couple dozen hit show why but in june when school is out the number will sort of over three hundred canadian hernandez administers the program here she says it's not only insures kids don't go hungry it guarantees they'll get nutritious meals and teaches them good eating habits he

is married now bananas apples of the lunches at mondello park are largely paid for by the federal government summer food program through schools and community groups the government said nearly three hundred thousand children in la county last july local activists say that's admirable but there are hundreds of thousands more chance eligible for these lunches who don't get them a lot of different places could be offering more meals to kids matt sharp heads the la office of california food policy advocates have a hard time filling out the paperwork and keeping track of all the red tape involved and at the places where the kids do get lunch there's a lot more children in the area who may not know that they can come and watch shark also thinks more schools and community groups will participate in the program is the reimbursement rates are increased the rates for cut back in nineteen eighty six as part of federal welfare reform each programme receives about two dollars and fifty cents per child per day and that is to cover all that the

transportation costs food production costs that cost monitoring cause caring cost cost many programs but it's far more than that to provide healthy lunches like the ones we see of this program the us department of agriculture which administers the program says it has launched several initiatives to help participants reduce costs and administrative burdens the usda is ricky jackson says one of the most promising initiative allows schools to run summer programs in the same way they operate their school year programs which basically means that spirit no additional cost involved to school to operate the farmer feeding program we believe the second they have a significant impact on raping the number of children jackson says because schools are already serving lunches and generally easier and cheaper for them to run summer programs but the usda would like to encourage more community run efforts as well part of the success of the montebello city park

program is kids are drawn to the location of a swimming pool and other recreational activities congresswoman hilda so lisa delmonte says it's important to promote the summer food program to a broad range of groups because there are many areas in the county that are being served and some of them need to be sold on the idea segment of our community felt their elected officials are or are individually or in a position to do for these grants that or not they believe that there isn't a problematic this that there is going to be that these children i can get by with that with their parents providing them with the fish meal during the farmer gerry even seen the fiscal year phillies would also like to see what can be done to ensure that children who do get lunches are eating high quality meals she hopes congress will take a closer look at these issues next year before it renews the legislation that funds the program in the meantime the usda hopes to increase the number of lunches served this summer it million so that more

kids across the country and in southern california can count on at least one indecent your day lawyers for kpcc news i'm elsa secular in montebello