Where's Lunch?
Thursday, July 7, 2005

Eligible Children Go Hungry While Federal Funds Go Down the Drain

For Immediate Release:

Contacts: Donna Lawrence, CDF-NY Executive Director, (212) 697-2323, dlawrence@cdfny.org or Erin Davis, CDF-NY, (212) 697-2323 x 107, edavis@cdfny.org.

On Tuesday, July 5th, students participating in the Children’s Defense Fund New York (CDF-NY) Freedom School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side were denied meals they are entitled to through the Summer Meals Program. CDF-NY, in its recent report, “Summer Meals for Children 2004: A Failing Grade for New York City,” highlighted the ineffectiveness and waste that characterized the implementation of the Summer Meals Program in New York City last summer and called for needed reforms. Now CDF-NY students have experienced these problems first hand. The Summer Meals Program is funded entirely though federal dollars at no cost to the city and was established to ensure that children and teenagers under 19 receive free, nutritious meals throughout the summer months. The program is hosted by more than 300 open sites throughout New York City.

Although the Summer Meals Program began on June 29th, when children began streaming into school for their first session on July 5th, breakfast had still not arrived. By the time the lunch period came around, and there was still no food delivery for breakfast or lunch, CDF Freedom School staff decided to walk the hungry students to the nearest school serving meals through the Summer Meals Program.  PS 188, across the street, was the nearest site. But, even as other students participating in summer instructional programs at PS 188 were fed and, even though many CDF Freedom School students are PS 188 students during the school year the CDF Freedom School children were turned away and told they could not be fed.

PS 188, an “open” site last year, is a “closed” site this year, meaning that children from the community can only receive meals if they are enrolled in a specific summer program at that school. CDF Freedom School staff were forced to locate yet another site, PS 15 on East 4th Street, the closest “open” site in the community. Unfortunately, that site was unprepared; leaving the Freedom School children to eat only leftover cheese sandwiches instead of the pizza on the regular summer meals menu.

Throughout the last several months, CDF-NY has engaged in ongoing dialogue with the Office of School Food and the Department of Education encouraging them to require all participating school sites be “open” to all children. Officials have repeatedly stated that a site can only be open to the community if 250 children or more will participate in the program on any given day. Clearly, 250 children were ready to participate on this day; Yet, PS 15, the only open site within the community, was not prepared for 250 children it was only able to serve 120 regular meals and 120 emergency meals (50 of which went to CDF Freedom School students). Meanwhile, at PS 188, where food was abundant, hungry children were turned away.

Donna Lawrence, Executive Director of The Children’s Defense Fund New York said: “While trained CDF-NY staff were able to intervene on behalf of these children in this particular case, many more children in New York City are unable to find free, nutritious meals, simply because there are not enough open school feeding sites in their community. We need to make sure that our children have access to this important, federally-funded program, which also brings needed revenue to our city. Last year, NYC missed out on a potential $73 million in available federal reimbursement money for the Summer Meals Program by not making the program accessible to all eligible children. CDF-NY reiterates our call to open every summer meal site to every child in the community so that no child in New York City goes hungry this summer.”

To get a copy of the Children’s Defense Fund New York report on Summer Meals, call (212) 697-2323 or visit the CDF - NY website at http://www.cdfny.org/.