Summer Food
Program Information
In 1994, the Hunger Commission collaborated with the City of Sacramento
(the Summer Food sponsor for Sacramento County) to increase participation
in the Summer Lunch Program. The result has been a 144% increase in the
average daily participation of children eating Summer Lunch.
What Did We Do?
- Created a competitive bidding process for school districts to receive
Summer Food funding. Sacramento County has six different school districts,
all of which would like to have money to keep food service staff employed
when school is out of session. In addition to meeting nutrition and
financial requirements, school districts must also pass a taste-testing
component composed of children ages 1-18 who eat, and rate, the food
the school districts are proposing to prepare for Summer Food.
- Recruited a large volunteer base to allow for over 100 sites to be
opened throughout the county. The number one priority for site location
is that it is safe and easy for children to access. The City of Sacramento
watches for possible hazards such as busy roads and intersections and
use volunteer staff to open sites across the street from each other
if the need arises. Volunteers are rewarded with a very popular Summer
Food BBQ every year and receive a commemorative "I Fed Kids!"
thank you gift. (Include "I Fed Kids" artwork- needs to be
scanned)
- Collaborated with a local social service hotline. Residents in Sacramento
County can call a local hotline number and receive information about
any of the over 100 sites in Sacramento County.
- Secured funding to have original artwork created to produce outreach
materials that are "kid-friendly" and fun to read. A designer
created sample graphics and the Hunger Commission facilitated focus
groups in low-income communities to get feedback on the designs and
layout. The result is outreach materials that our target audience has
helped to create. The Hunger Commission's original outreach materials
include:
- Created maps for each city council district indicating existing Summer
Food sites. The Hunger Commission scheduled appointments with policymakers
and worked with them to identify neighborhoods that needed summer food
sites and solicited their support for improving access to the Summer
Food program in their district. The maps
are now part of this website and are used to encourage equitable distribution
of all food resources in the Sacramento City and County policy districts.
- Facilitated enrichment activities at sites with the lowest participation
or in parts of town that are considered to be the lowest-income areas.
Local librarians donated time to read books to kids (usually a book
related to food and nutrition). VISTA volunteers planted vegetables
in milk cartons that the kids took home. A huge plastic food pyramid,
including plastic food that the kids can play with, was used to teach
the importance of a balanced diet.
- Collaborated with the Department of Human Assistance to have outreach
materials distributed with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
checks.
- Wrote a press release for local television and radio stations and
hand delivered it attached to a Summer Food box lunch. This is a great
way for the media to see what the kids are eating in the Summer Lunch
program and we deliver it right before lunch, which almost always makes
these busy people very happy.
- Created personalized flyers for food closets advertising sites in
their service area. (Downloadable version- needs to be scanned)
The Hunger Commission Summer Lunch campaign, in collaboration with the
City of Sacramento, won the USDA Pyramid of Excellence Award in 1999.
Contact the Hunger Commission for more information
on the Summer Lunch campaign and free samples of outreach and resource
materials.
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Resources
During the program, we created the following resources and they are available
to you.
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