U.S., area experts spotlight kids’ nutrition programs
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service Southwest Region joined child nutrition directors from across the state Wednesday to discuss how to improve communication about the new Healthy Kids Initiative.
The discussion followed Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde’s declaration of the month of March as School Breakfast Month to highlight the role that the federal Agriculture Department’s School Breakfast Program plays to ensure that all Arkansas students are “healthy and ready to learn.”
The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance has sponsored School Breakfast Month each year since 2010, when the Alliance became the lead partner for the No Kid Hungry Campaign in Arkansas.
This year, the Alliance partnered with the Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Child Nutrition Unit and the Arkansas School Nutrition Association to help celebrate School Breakfast Month.
“No child should ever go hungry,” said Hyde, the chief executive of Pulaski County government. “Initiatives like School Breakfast Month and Pulaski County’s partnership with Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance are just some of the ways we can raise awareness about and address child hunger.”
In June 2022, the Pulaski County Quorum Court provided $500,000 to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to facilitate the Pulaski County Hunger Reduction Initiative, which provides direct support to food pantries serving the county.
Bill Ludwig, Mark Speight and Kim Burgess from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Southwest Region; Crenisha Wright from the Arkansas Food Bank; Barbara Cole, nutrition director for the Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind; Laura Jennings, child nutrition director for the Lake Hamilton School District; Mary Lee Dennis, child nutrition director for the North Little Rock School District; Stephanie Walker Hynes, child nutrition director for the Little Rock School District; Leigh Christian, child nutrition director for the Fort Smith School District; and Patty Barker and Vivian Nicholson of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance were all present.
Ludwig told the panel that the Healthy Kids Initiative will encompass everything the USDA Food and Nutrition Service does, from School Breakfast Week to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
“We want to work with Arkansas on the things that you’re doing that we can label as part of the Healthy Kids Initiative,” he said.
Burgess said the Food and Nutrition Service is focused on a long-term integrated policy, communications, and public health outreach initiatives that emphasize the significant impact nutrition has on child health, growth and development.
“The Healthy Kids Initiative will focus on one population we believe our nutrition security efforts can have the greatest and most-life changing impact — our nation’s infants, children, and adolescents,” she said.
Ludwig said that in the next two weeks, he will meet with Kristi Putnam, secretary of the Department of Human Services for Arkansas and share anything the panel would like her to know.
Hynes said her district would like to operate through the Department of Education instead of also having to go through the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Southwest Regional office.
Hynes also mentioned that Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer cards do not require an application for the school year if the district has community eligibility or provision, but in June and July, it’s $40.
“It’s too confusing,” she said. “It’s a regulatory burden, and it’s just too much for the small amount of money and time. And so we just kind of want to be very honest about that and put that out there.”
The Seamless Summer Option program, which offers a “streamlined approach” to feeding hungry children by allowing school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs to apply, is going back to a higher reimbursement rate on July 1, Speight said.
“What we care about is that the programs are administered efficiently and honestly, in the best place, and wherever the governor in the state decides that is, we’re there to support; local politics, we try to stay out of,” Ludwig said in reply.
Speight said more details for next summer will be announced for the feeding program with guidance for school districts.
Jennings said the sooner that software companies can get the online applications out for the free and reduced meals the better it will be for parents who need to apply. School districts will have to get the information out by July.
After two years of no application needed due to the covid-19 pandemic, parents are having to adjust to apply for free and reduced meals for students again, Barker said.
The child nutrition directors also wanted to know about applying for grants for cafeteria equipment, which were supposed to be released to the public in January.
Burgess concluded by asking the directors what they wanted to see from the Southwest Regional office in regard to communication about the Healthy Kids Initiative, School Breakfast Week or National School Lunch Week.
Hynes said it has to be a collaborative effort with Parent and Teacher Associations, school boards, parents, principals and those who have direct contact with students. The new dietary guidelines have become “problematic” she said, because of the industry costs and parents who don’t understand them.
“Most [parents] don’t have any conversations about this, and so we’ve got to start pushing messages out in every other entity that kids are in, whether it’s the sports, the coaches, the professional development requirements, we’ve got to bring all the groups together.”
Jennings said their district’s communications director put out an email and Facebook notification to parents and made banners with QR codes to put in front of each school for parents to fill out applications for free and reduced lunches. The schools were also able to serve universal free breakfast and promote the applications, and in doing so they saw the highest number of applications ever.
Burgess said the Southwest Regional office could provide districts with a media toolkit of graphics to use to promote the applications and other new programs from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Currently, there are 15 federal nutrition assistance programs.
“Nutrition security remains one of the USDA’s top priorities and ensuring all our programs provide access to nutritious food for those in need,” Burgess said. “The School Breakfast Program plays a critical role for students across Arkansas with an average daily participation of more than 157,000 for the 20222023 school year. School meals are also the main source of nutrition for over half of children.”