Summer Feeding Report 2010
Program Background
Summer 2010 marked the 8th year of the Regional food Bank’s Summer Feeding program. With this program, which includes the federal summer Food Service Program (SFSP), and a private “Feeding Our Future” program sponsored by Sodexo, the Regional food Bank provided over 77,000 meals to low income children.
SFSP, a program of the USDA, was established to ensure that low income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Through this program, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma provided free meals that met federal nutrition guidelines to children at approved SFSP sites in areas with significant concentrations of low-income children.
The Regional food Bank was the largest non-school district sponsor in the state of Oklahoma. This year the Regional food Bank sponsored 34 SFSP sites I 10 different Oklahoma counties: Cleveland, Garfield, Pottawatomie, Payne, Tillman, Oklahoma, Lincoln, Canadian, McClain and Noble.
In addition to SFSP, The Regional food Bank received a “Feeding Our Future” grant from Sodexo. This funding was used specifically to purchase summer meals for needy children. Sodexo employees donated labor to assemble nonperishable meal packs which provided 19,888 meals to needy children. The Sodexo meals were distributed to Oklahoma City sites, such as camps and summer schools.
Outputs
In total, Summer Feeding (SFSP and Sodexo) distributed 77,117 meals in 2010. Of those meals, 13,317 were breakfast, 43,912 were lunch and 19,888 from Sodexo.
The program reached its peak on June 23, with 1,357 meals served for lunch. Because children’s names were not documented, the exact number of children benefitting from the program cannot be determined. However, the June 23rd lunch total indicates that 1,357 children were fed during the lunch time. In addition, the highest single day meals served was also June 23rd, with 1,749 meals distributed.
Evaluation
Parent Survey
“It helped by providing meals for my family when we didn’t have enough food to eat at the end of the month.” -Anonymous parent from Sooner Haven Housing Authority site.
- When asked if it was a challenge to provide three meals a day, 80% said yes, 10% said no, and 10% said sometimes. This indicates that 90% of the parents needed Summer Feeding 2010 to provide meals for their children.
- 55% of the parents said that at least sometime during the summer their children would not have enough to eat without Summer Feeding.
- 40% of the parents had to cut grocery spending due to other expenses, 35% did sometimes, and 20% said that they didn’t. This indicates that 80% of parents had to cut grocery spending to pay bills (utilities, rent, etc.).
- Some of the parents surveyed said that they would have liked to be able to take the leftover food that their children couldn’t eat home with them.
Child Survey
- The average child surveyed was 9 years old.
- Of the children surveyed, beef sticks, juice and cheddar crackers were indicated to be the favorite lunch foods, while cereal was the favorite breakfast food.
- Milk was indicated to be the least favorite breakfast and lunch food of the children surveyed.
- 114 of the child respondents (100%) ate lunch, and 62 ate breakfast. Only 38% of the sites served breakfast.
Outcome Goal
The outcome goal defined the ultimate purpose for the program: provide nutritious meals to low income children over the summer. With 77,117 meals delivered to low income areas and at least 1,357 children fed, Summer Feeding was a success.
The staff of Summer Feeding successfully fulfilled its SFSP regulations while accomplishing the activity and outcome goals. The true impact of the program can only be measured by the children who weren’t left hungry in the hot summer of 2010.
