We Support the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2019

Yesterday, Representative Susan Davis (D-San Diego) introduced H.R. 3378–the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2019, which will provide essential investments in summer feeding for California’s most vulnerable children by establishing a nationwide Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children (commonly known as Summer EBT).

California is home to 2 million hungry children – more than any other state. During the school year, school meals provide essential nutrition to California’s eligible low-income children to ensure that they start the school day ready to learn. Yet, when school lets out for summer, far too many low-income children lose access to these meals and hunger and food insecurity increase.

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is the nation’s premier program to address child summer hunger by offering meals with programming and enrichment. Alongside summer meal sites, Summer EBT is a proven and complimentary intervention to the Summer Food Service Program to help reduce hunger in communities where summer meal sites are not viable and children are hard to reach.

Summer EBT works by placing money on EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards for children eligible for free and reduced-price meals over the summer months—allowing households to purchase food for children to be eaten at home rather than at a summer meal site. USDA research on Summer EBT demonstration projects show significant improvements for children’s health, with households that received the maximum benefit of $60 per child per month seeing the most dramatic reductions in food insecurity—reducing the most severe category of child food insecurity by 30 percent.

We’re proud to support the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2019 which would provide $150 over the summer for every child who receives free or reduced price-meals during the school year, will help reduce the harm of child summer hunger, and supports the vision of a hunger-free California for all children.