Pallone Highlights Start of Summer Food Program, Calls for Reauthorization of Child Nutrition Legislation

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – Today, at A.C. Redshaw Elementary School in New Brunswick, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) kicked-off the start of the Summer Food Service Program and highlighted the need for Congress to support child nutrition programs. During the school year, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey children rely on free or reduced price meals at school. The Summer Food Service Program ensures that those meals do not stop for these children when the school year ends. The City of New Brunswick Summer Food Service Program, which operates 22 sites, began this week. A.C. Redshaw Elementary provides breakfast or lunch to an estimated 200 children. The program, like many throughout the state and country, is federally funded.

“Hunger doesn’t take a vacation. The summer food program ensures that when schools let out for summer break, millions of low-income children do not lose access to the school breakfasts and lunches they rely on,” said Congressman Pallone. “The New Brunswick School District’s effort is a shining example of a summer food program successfully at work. I will continue the fight in Congress for needed funding for child nutrition and school meal programs – we owe it to our country’s most important resource, our children.”

Pallone called on Congress to reauthorize important child nutrition programs. The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act was signed into law in 2010, authorized these programs for five years, and is set to expire on September 30, 2015. The legislation expanded the availability of nutritious meals and snacks to more children in school, in outside school hours programs, and in child care. It also contained a number of provisions to improve the nutritional quality of meals served in schools and preschool settings and to simplify the application process for children and their parents.

Congressman Pallone was joined by Adele LaTourette, Director, New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, and James Harmon, Regional Director of Special Nutrition Programs, Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture.