Kids need not go hungry

Beth Slovic

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

Ranked sixth in the nation overall, Nevada is among the most successful states in the country when it comes to feeding needy children in the summer for free, according to a new report from the Food Research Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group based in Washington D.C.

Still, thousands of children in Nevada go hungry every summer because programs meant to help them aren't reaching them, the report said.

Only about 33 percent of Nevada children from the ages of 2 to 18 who participate in federally-funded nutrition programs during the school year receive similar assistance during the summer, the report said. That translates to about 28,862 children in the summer compared with 86,681 during the school year, according to the food research center.

A combination of factors, including a steadily decreasing number of participating sites and the fact that many parents don't know about these sites, conspire to keep the numbers lower than they could be, policy analysts and government officials said.

"While most kids take a vacation at the end of the school year, hunger does not," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday at a press conference at the Valley View Recreation Center on Harris Street in Henderson, one of the Agriculture Department's Summer Food Service program sites.

Next door, nearly 100 children sat at benches munching on carrots and pizza as part of the recreation center's federally-funded free breakfast and lunch program.

"Unfortunately, many of the potential participants are not aware of the program," Veneman said.

In 1999 Nevada's children could eat for free at 106 sponsored sites across the state. Today that number has dropped to 75, said Diane Hogan, a program coordinator for the state education department that administers the federal program here.

Along with the decreasing number of sites, the amount of money the state receives from the federal government has also gone down. The state receives funding for its programs from cash reimbursements from the federal government based on the number of meals it serves.

More children could be fed, several officials at the Tuesday press conference said.

"We're constantly looking for more and more sponsors," Hogan said. "There's still a big need that's not being met."

According to Rep Jon Porter, R-Nev., this is partly because states haven't done enough to publicize their programs. Last week the Agriculture Department and the Mexican government agreed to cooperate in an effort to advertise the program to Mexican-Americans, permanent residents and undocumented Mexican immigrants living in the United States.

No grants support the agreement, however.

"There are so many children out there who don't know about the program," Porter said from a recreation-center classroom decorated with posters of bears.

Beyond publicizing their programs, states could expand them in several ways, Randy Rosso, a senior policy analyst with the food research center, said.

Federal officials could push a pilot program currently operating in 13 states and Puerto Rico that has successfully increased the numbers of children eating for free, Rosso said.

Lawmakers could also raise the federal per-meal reimbursement level and reduce the eligibility threshold that determines where sites can operate, he said.

Today, at least 50 percent of students within a given neighborhood of schools must have parents below federal income levels before a summer nutrition program can open at their schools.

The food research center would like to see that eligibility threshold drop to 40 percent, Rosso said.

Several years ago the threshold stood at 33 percent, he added.

No new funding has been set aside by the Department of Agriculture to increase the public's awareness about its summer nutrition program, Veneman said.

Eleven state legislatures, including those in California, New York and Texas, have passed laws to support the federal program and some of those have allocated additional funding for it, a crucial element in improving states' programs, Rosso said.

Nevada's legislature has yet to follow suit, which is one way, he said, the state could increase the number of kids with full stomachs during the summer.