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Kevin ConcannonUnder SecretaryFood Nutrition and Consumer Services, USDA
FY 16-17: Agency Priority Goal
Increased Food Security and Diet Quality
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
A plentiful supply of safe and nutritious food is essential to the well-being of every family and the healthy development of every child in America. Scientific research has established strong links between diet, health, and productivity. Even small improvements in the average diet may yield significant health and economic benefits.
Yet we know that for a significant number of American families, a lack of sufficient food and nutrition remains a serious problem. While most American households always have access to enough nutritious food for an active and healthy lifestyle, the latest data show that about 7.5 million American households with children, accounting for over 15.3 million children, had difficulty putting enough food on the table at some point during 2014. Even more alarming, in more than 400,000 households, with more than 914,000 children, one or more children simply did not get enough to eat. At times during the year, these children were hungry, skipped meals, or went whole days without food.
USDA’s domestic nutrition assistance programs serve one in four Americans annually. The Department is committed to making benefits available to every eligible person who wishes to participate in the major nutrition assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Child Nutrition Programs, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Too often people who need benefits do not participate, because they do not know they are eligible, do not realize the size and value of benefits available to them, or believe applying is too difficult or burdensome. While the Department’s ultimate objective is for economic opportunities to make nutrition assistance unnecessary for as many families as possible, we are working to ensure these vital programs remain ready to serve all eligible people who need them and to eliminate barriers to access for eligible Americans.
In particular, USDA is working to ensure eligible children have effective and easy access to the Child Nutrition Programs. The National School Lunch Program is available in most schools, but not all eligible children participate. Some bring healthful food from home, while others, especially in high schools, may be foregoing a nutritious lunch entirely. In addition, the School Breakfast Program (SBP) operates much like the National School Lunch Program, except the program may not be reaching all the children who need it for a number of reasons, including limited time in the school schedule and potential stigma. Eating a healthy breakfast, at home or at school, is linked to better educational performance and classroom behavior, and fewer visits to the school nurse. Therefore, USDA is focused on improving participation in SBP. We are also focused on improving access to nutritious food for children during the summer months when school meals are not available, and the risk of hunger increases. We’ve made it a priority to expand access to summer meals with creative approaches so that children and teens can access nutritious food .
The Department is working to improve access to and the nutritional quality of benefits in these programs. These efforts seek to ensure that healthful and palatable food is available to every student to support his/her health, growth, and learning.
Strategies
- Publication of remaining regulations, policy guidance and technical assistance.
- Expand the number of schools electing the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows schools in low-income areas to provide free meals to all students. Support States, school districts, and schools interested in electing CEP, through guidance, targeted technical assistance, and other resources throughout the school year including issuing updated question and answer guidance
- For children eligible for free and reduced priced meals, reduce the gap between school lunch participation during the school year and participation in summer meals programs.
- Work towards implementing employment and training (E&T) programs that will help SNAP recipients get and retain jobs, which provide them with the household resources necessary for food security.
- Increase the retention of children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) after age 1, by working more closely with Head Start, building on special projects that may show promise in supporting retention, and using ongoing research to examine reasons that families leave the program and crafting strategies in response.
Progress Update
Food insecurity among children and very low food security among children declined significantly from 2014. Children and adults were food insecure in 7.8 percent of households with children in 2015, down from 9.4 percent in 2014. Very low food security among children was 0.7 percent in 2015, down from 1.1 percent in 2014 (Coleman-Jensen, 2016). The number of food insecure children in 2015 was 13.1 million.
Children in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Schools:
- Provided targeted, technical assistance to seven Focus States, increasing CEP uptake in highly-eligible schools and districts. For example, California added 443 CEP schools in SY 2015-2016, the largest increase in CEP schools nationwide. Most of the new schools (339) are in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which adopted CEP in many schools in March 2016.
- Published CEP Final Rule (July 2016) and provided updated guidance, in Q&A form, to address changes made by the CEP final rule (September 2016).
- Awarded SY 2016-2017 direct certification with Medicaid pilots to 7 States (April 2016). Direct verification via means-tested programs such as Medicaid has many potential benefits: enhanced program integrity; less burden for households when their eligibility is confirmed and no contact is needed; less work for school district staff; and fewer students with school meal benefits terminated because of nonresponse to verification requests.
- Received applications for SY 2017-2018 direct certification with Medicaid pilots (September 2016).
Children Participating in School Breakfast Program:
- Published final regulations related to Smart Snacks in Schools and Local School Wellness policies (July 2016).
- Published final regulation regarding Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal patterns.
- Issued guidance related to ensuring access of low-income students to free and reduced price meals (August 2016) and to unpaid meal charges (July & September 2016).
Meals Served to Children During the Summer Months:
- Published the Promoting Nutrition in Summer Meal Program with Best Practices memorandum highlighting resources and strategies to improve the nutritional quality and appeal of the meals served to children in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) (May 2016- SP 06-2016, SFSP 02-2016 v2).
- Published the How to Participate in Summer Meals fact sheet.
- Held phone call with Department of Ed (DOE) on September 8 to explore opportunities for collaborating around Title I funding opportunities; held internal brainstorming session and set goals for working with DOE in the future.
- Engaged State agencies in discussions regarding increasing summer meals participation through technology at the annual Child Nutrition Access and Accountability through Technology (CNAAT) training in September as well as presented about how to use data to inform SFSP expansion and demonstrated the suite of mapping tools.
WIC Coverage Rate Among Children:
- USDA executed a multipronged approach to address program retention, including but not limited to the below activities. USDA: (1) established partnerships with at least two new stakeholders, including the National Association of Family Child Care (NAFCC) and Share our Strength; (2) hosted a successful child retention presentation/showcase at the 2016 National WIC Association’s Nutrition Education and Breastfeeding Conference on Sept. 8; (3) developed two grant opportunities to improve retention, including an Request For Applications (RFA) for FY 2016 WIC Special Project Grants with the focus area of child retention, and an RFA for a multi-year cooperative agreement to focus on child retention; and (4) implemented strategies according to the Head Start Action Plan, such as presentations at the 2016 Head Start conference in May, and regular meetings with Head Start.
Next Steps
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)/School Breakfast: USDA’s Food Nutrition Service (FNS) will finalize scheduled Fall data collection to measure CEP implementation progress and participation at the State and local level, and identify candidates for targeted outreach and technical assistance efforts. FNS will announce States selected for the SY 2017-2018 direct certification with Medicaid pilots. Direct verification via means-tested programs such as Medicaid has many potential benefits: enhanced program integrity; less burden for households when their eligibility is confirmed and no contact is needed; less work for school district staff; and fewer students with school meal benefits terminated because of nonresponse to verification requests.
Summer: FNS will conduct Regional, State and National office debrief sessions; Conduct analysis of 2016 Summer campaign designed to identify best practices and recommendations for the 2017 campaign; and Issue Summer Policy Release (11/30/16).
In Summer 2017, USDA has a goal of sustaining the expanded access achieved over the past 5 years. Included in the Agency’s Summer Sustainability Plan: Summer FY17 action plan; Implement the State Targeted Technical Assistance Project; Develop Communications Plan; Maintain Summer Meal Site Locator Web Tool; Update Summer Meals Toolkit; and Improve Data Collection.
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Coverage: FY 2017 activities will build upon those conducted in FY 2016. In FY 2016, Supplemental Food Program Division (SFPD) successfully implemented strategies according to the Head Start Action Plan, with the focus on increasing retention of children in the WIC after age 1. Such strategies included session presentations at the 2016 Head Start conference in May, and regular meetings with Head Start to execute additional collaboration activities, to include various communication opportunities. SFPD also engaged with the FNS Regional Offices to seek further opportunities for collaboration with Head Start. Planned activities include: engage in one or more collaborative activities with Head Start and Early Head Start; provide one or more opportunities for WIC agencies to test innovative WIC service delivery options that promote child retention; identify opportunities for Regional offices to engage with National stakeholders at the Regional level; identify opportunities for program access improvements.
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Performance Indicators
Children in Community Eligibility Provision Schools
Children Participating in School Breakfast Program
Children Receiving Summer Feeding
WIC Coverage Rate Among Children
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
The fundamental cause of food insecurity and hunger in the United States is poverty – the lack of adequate resources to address basic needs such as food, shelter and health care. While USDA’s nutrition safety net improves access to food to those with critical needs, addressing the causes of hunger requires a broad strategy to improve economic opportunities and increase incomes. The Administration has already taken aggressive steps to address poverty through a broad expansion of economic opportunity.
In addition, Federal agriculture support programs provide an infrastructure that enables the natural abundance of U.S. lands and supports the ingenuity and hard work of the Nation’s agricultural producers. This combination creates a food supply system unparalleled in its abundance, safety, and quality. USDA supports and protects the Nation’s agricultural system and the consumers it serves. This, too, is a critical underpinning for strategies to reduce food insecurity and improve diet quality.
This APG is related to USDA Stratigic Plan Goal 4 – Ensure that All of America’s Children Have Access to Safe, Nutritious, and Balanced Meals. Specifically, Objective 4.1 – Improve Access to Nutritious Food, and Objective 4.2 – Promote Healthy Diet and Physical Activity Behaviors.
No Data Available
