Cohen Visits Food Service Program Feeding Sites to Serve Children Healthy Meals
MEMPHIS, TN. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today visited several Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) feeding sites throughout Memphis with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service Deputy Regional Administrator Erin Swanson-Hall to serve more than 150 local children food and discuss the importance of the Summer Food Service Program, which was created in 1968 to provide children with nutritious meals during the summer months. Calvin Johnson, Interim Director for Nutrition Services at Memphis City Schools, and two representatives from the Tennessee Department of Human Services -- Deputy Commissioner Shalonda Cawthon and Robert Matthews, Assistant Commissioner of Adult and Family Services -- also participated.
“This important program works to ensure that low-income children throughout Memphis do not go hungry during the summer months,” said Congressman Cohen. “Throughout my Congressional career I have voted to support the Summer Food Service Program because no child should ever go hungry, and that is why I will continue to be a strong supporter of this crucial program.”
“Each summer, millions of families struggle to provide their children with nutritious meals when schools close,” said Erin Swanson-Hall, Deputy Regional Administrator for Food and Nutrition Service. “SFSP fills this gap by marshalling resources to curb food insecurity and end hunger for our nation’s children.”
“For far too many children, from low-income homes, school is traditionally the source for their most nutritious meal of the day,” said Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Raquel Hatter. “By supporting good nutrition habits at an early age and using the resources of the Summer Food program we are offering balanced meals year round. Through these efforts we hope students gain nutritional stability and a solid foundation to make healthy food choices.”
“The Memphis City Schools Division of Nutrition Services Summer Feeding Program is a resource that our community cannot do without,” said Calvin Johnson, Interim Director for Nutrition Services at Memphis City Schools. “Our students and many other children depend upon it to provide the healthy, nutritious meals they receive at school throughout the summer.”
The group visited Glenview Community Center at 1141 South Barksdale Street, Orange Mound Community Center at 2572 Park Avenue, and Bethel Labelle Community Center at 2698 Larose Avenue and met with and fed more than 150 children.
SFSP provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need to learn, play, and grow throughout the summer months when they are out of school. Children who miss school breakfast and lunch are more likely to be sick, absent or tardy, disruptive in class, and inattentive. They also score lower on achievement tests. Good nutrition is essential for learning in school. SFSP provides an opportunity to continue a child’s physical and social development while providing nutritious meals during long vacation periods from school and helps children return to school ready to learn.
The Food and Nutrition Service, an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, administers SFSP at the federal level. State education agencies administer the program in most states. The program sponsored by Memphis City Schools is administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services. Memphis City Schools has been preparing summer meals since 1967. The Memphis Park Commission was the prior sponsor of the program.
Beginning this year, Memphis City Schools started offering breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack or supper to all sites. Sites have the option of choosing two of the four meals that are offered. This summer alone, Memphis City Schools provided meals to more than 400 approved sites in Memphis and Shelby County. Memphis City Schools averaged more than 24,000 meals daily during the month of June.
Congressman Cohen was a strong supporter of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The legislation authorizes funding and sets policy for USDA’s core child nutrition programs: the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act allows USDA, for the first time in more than 30 years, opportunity to make real reforms to the school lunch and breakfast programs by improving the critical nutrition and hunger safety net for millions of children.