November 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 56

NRPA Update

Combating Hunger through
Parks and Recreation
By Travis Smith, Ph.D., and Rishma Parpia

espite our society's efforts, childhood hunger remains a reality in the
United States. In fact, 16.2 million children struggle with hunger in
America. During the school year, school lunches often feed children
in need. The Food and Research Center reports that in 2012, 31.6 million kids
were fed daily by the National School Lunch Program. However, when the
school year ends and summer begins, millions of low-income children lose access to school breakfasts and lunches. For many of these children, these may
be the only nutritious and healthy meals they enjoy on a normal day. So when
school is out, who feeds these kids?
In many communities, the answer is the community park and
recreation agency. Park and recreation agencies also participate in
the federal Summer Food Service
Program (SFSP) and are the largest
public provider of healthy meals
and snacks outside of schools. Data
from PRORAGIS™ illustrates that
almost 50 percent of park and recreation agencies that offer summer
camps are sites for feeding programs. Research estimates that park
and recreation agencies serve 560
million meals to children through

summer and after-school programs
each year. The SFSP is designed to
replace regular school year feeding
programs by providing low-income
children access to the nutritious
meals they need to prevent hunger
and remain healthy throughout the
summer. Furthermore, summer
nutrition programs offered at park
and recreation sites play an important role by involving children in
educational and recreational programming to keep them engaged,
active and safe during the summer
months.

Summer Camp Feeding Programs

In recent years, federal summer
nutrition programs have struggled
to meet the need because of budget cuts to state and local programs
that support underlying summer
programs for children. NRPA continues to work with national partners to address children's hunger
during out-of-school times. As
the largest public provider of children's meals during the summer
months, our agencies have clearly
shown the capacity to effectively
reach children in need of nutritious meals.
For a full list of references, visit
www.parksandrecreation.org/2014/
November/Combating-Hunger-through-Parks-and-Recreation.

Travis Smith, Ph.D., is NRPA's Vice President
of Research (tsmith@nrpa.org). Rishma
Parpia is a Research Consultant at The
Research Workroom LLC (rishma.parpia@
researchworkroom.com).

After-School Programs

of park and recreation agencies

offer summer camps

weeks

Average length
of camps offered
by these agencies

54 Parks & Recreation

These agencies serve
an average of
of these camps
offer feeding
programs for
participants

133
campers
per week

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of agencies offer beforeor after-school programs
that feed children
These agencies feed
an average of

participants per week

November 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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