Many students in our state and country look forward to summer vacation and the fun it brings each year, but many others face uncertainty, and a big reason is that their only healthy meals often come from school.
More than 21 million students in the United States depend on free or reduced-price school meals nine months out of the year under the National School Lunch Program. In Virginia, more than 1.25 million students qualify for this program.
Because the National School Lunch Program temporarily ends each summer, USDA created the Summer Food Service Program, an interagency partnership comprised of USDA Rural Development and USDA Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services that helps ensure low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals during the summer months.
Rural Development uses its multi-family housing complexes as food service sites, and Sandston Woods apartments is one of them.
Since 2013, more than 60 children at the complex in Sandston have enjoyed improved access to food in the summer months thanks to the program.
“Supplying food for the families here definitely helps because some of the residents have a limited income, so being able to supply breakfast and lunch helps their food supply at home last a little longer,” said Kendria Roane, Sandston Woods site manager. “The program also helps the children at the complex to meet and greet and interact socially with each other, and it also teaches them how to eat nutritiously.”
As the program flourished with record numbers in 2015, USDA Rural Development expanded from two to 17 properties in Virginia, making the commonwealth’s program one of the most active in the country. In 2016 USDA Rural Development expects to host the program at more than 40 sites across the state.
SFSP’s steady momentum will ensure children in rural Virginia have the nutrition necessary to return to school each fall ready to learn, and it might also make their summers a bit more enjoyable.
“The residents appreciate the program and the children all ask year each, as the summer gets closer, if we will be offering the program again,” Roane said. “They look forward to it.”