Child Nutrition Advocacy We work to ensure that all children have access to all of the government Child Nutrition Programs. They include: the Supplemental Food Program for Womens, Infants and Children (WIC), National School Lunch Program, National School Breakfast Program, Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. We ensure that the programs are user friendly and parents and children have no problems finding and using the programs. We organize the community to get them to work towards better child nutrition policies thru community education and outreach, work with our public officials, community meetings, grass roots organizing and advocacy. We: Work to enroll more Summer Food Service Program sites especially in public buildings. Provide a Summer Food Hotline that children and parents call to find a Summer Food site in their area. Our hotline served nearly 300 families in 2005. Work with the Pittsburgh Public Schools to improve nutrition in the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. Because of our dedicated service to ending hunger and reaching out to many low-income families, we sit on a committee of the Pittsburgh Public School District which works to move the school district’s Wellness Policy into the final stages. Convinced Allegheny County Health Department and County Council to reopen the McKees Rocks (WIC) office the County closed after the flood in 2004. Produced a brochure for Hurricane Katrina victims to assist them in accessing the federal food assistance programs. Working with Allegheny County Bureau of Hunger and Housing Services to identify afterschool programs which want to serve their children snacks and supper thru the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Child Nutrition Program Links Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center (PHAC) For a profile of food and nutrition programs across the nation click here for FRAC’s State of the States Report. Summer Food Service Program During the school year, low-income Pennsylvania children may receive nutritious meals at school. During the summer months many of these same children don’t have that opportunity because school meals are not available. Areas surrounding a school building where 50 % or more of their children are eligible for free or reduced priced school meals can serve Summer Food Program breakfasts, lunches and snacks to their children. Children can have these meals at many community programs, parks, swimming pools and churches through the National Summer Food Service Program. The Summer Food Program offers children breakfast, lunch and snack at no cost at hundreds of sites throughout Allegheny County. There is no paperwork for the parents to fill out. Children between the ages of 1 and 18 can have a meal while socializing with friends. Just Harvest has a Summer Food Hotline that children and their parents can call to find a Summer Food site near them. Just Harvest works closely with administrators to get the word out about the program. We also work to recruit new sites, eliminate barriers to participation and help to resolve conflicts with participants, sites and administrators of the program. During the summer months you can find a site near you by calling Just Harvest’s Summer Food Hotline at 1-888-FOOD-210. If you would like to start a Summer Food site in your community click here to email Shauna for more information. What are the Reimbursement Rates for Summer Food meals? Allegheny County School Building Data for 2007 will show you if your area qualifies to serve children Summer Food meals. If 50% or more of the children in a school are eligible for free or reduced price meals, the area qualifies. For a more in depth description of the program, go to PA Hunger Action Center’s website at http://www.pahunger.org/html/hunger/RefSix.pdf Back to Top Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Since its beginnings in 1974, WIC has fought medical problems brought on by the lack of nutritious food in pregnant, nursing and bottle-feeding women, babies and small children. You can become eligible for WIC if you are nutritionally at-risk and income eligible. Participants can go to any WIC office that's convenient for them. WIC provides vouchers to eligible participants that can be redeemed at any WIC approved grocery store, for infant formula, cereal, juice, eggs, whole milk, cheese and dried beans and other nutritious foods. Between spring and fall some WIC participants get Farmer's Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) checks to purchase Pennsylvania grown fresh fruits and vegetables at local Farmers Markets to encourage healthy eating. To find out if you are income eligible to receive WIC click here. For a list of Allegheny County WIC offices click here. (See the bottom of the page for a list). Click here for a list of WIC stores. For more information about WIC in Allegheny County and a list of nearby farmers markets click here. For a more in depth description of WIC in Pennsylvania go to PA Hunger Action Center’s website by clicking here. Back to Top National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs National School Lunch Program In 1946 The National School Lunch Act was enacted by Congress as a “measure of national security” to preserve the physical condition and welfare of US children. It began after the government noticed the poor nutrition among many of the men who responded to the draft. It was enacted so that all children could have at least one wholesome meal a day. The National School Lunch Program provides school children with one-third or more of their Recommended Dietary Allowance for key nutrients. These lunches must provide no more than 30 percent of calories from fat and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. During the 2004-05 school year, 29.5 million children participated in the National School Lunch Program in more than 98,800 schools and residential child care institutions. On an average school day, 17.5 million of these 29.5 million total participants were receiving free or reduced price lunches. School Breakfast Program The School Breakfast Program started as a pilot program in 1966 to help combat hunger in schools where there were long bus rides and in areas where there were a lot of working mothers. The program became permanent in 1975 to ensure children received a nutritious morning meal. Today many families find it hard to make ends meet which puts a strain in the family’s food dollars. Many children in these families don’t eat a nutritious breakfast every morning. Many children awake to find their parents rushing to get to work and them off to school. Therefore breakfast is forgotten. The National School Breakfast Program helps to alleviate the burdens on parents. Depending on the family’s income, the meals are free or at a reduced price. Studies show that students who eat a nutritious school breakfast perform better on standardized tests, have fewer discipline problems and are able to concentrate better. Any school may sponsor a breakfast program, but only 80,223 did so in the 2004-2005 school year. Approximately 9.2 million children participated in the School Breakfast Program in that year. There are different approaches to offering breakfast to all students. Some schools feed children in the classroom before class starts. Some schools offer “grab n’ go” breakfasts. These are pre-bagged breakfasts that children receive as they enter the school or classroom. There are many ideas that can work; all it takes is a little imagination and a commitment to feeding children. For a more in depth description of the program, go to PA Hunger Action Center’s website. For school breakfast and lunch data, by school building, click here. To see Pennsylvania’s School Breakfast participation numbers, compared with other states, click here. To see how Pennsylvania school districts performed on the School Breakfast Program, click here. Back to Top Wellness Policy To help combat childhood obesity and over-weight, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 provides that every school district receiving federal school meals reimbursements must have a Wellness Policy in place by the first day of the 2006-07 school year. The Wellness Policies promote increased physical activity and healthy eating in school by establishing goals for nutrition education, physical activity and for other school-based activities. Many community entities must be a part of the development of the local wellness policy: parents, students, school food service staff, the school board, school administrators and the public. Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) CACFP reimburses licensed childcare centers (including Head Start), family day care homes, homeless shelters, after-school programs and adult day care centers for food provided to eligible children and adults. Pennsylvania is one of seven states in the nation eligible to serve afterschool supper to children 18 and under during the school year through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program. Costs of meals are reimbursed with federal dollars. There is little paperwork associated with this program which makes it easy for small programs to participate. In order for programs to participate they must: be run by a school, private non-profit organization, government agency or a licensed or approved child care provider; be in an area where 50 percent or more children receive free or reduced priced meals; offer educational and enrichment activities. If you're interested in becoming an Afterschool Supper Program site click here to e-mail Shauna Ponton For a more in depth description of the program, go to PA Hunger Action Center's website by clicking here. To find an afterschool feeding site near you click here. Back to Top