Missouri part of pilot program to combat childhood hunger

For many Missouri children who live with hunger, the one meal they can count on every weekday is the free lunch they receive in the school cafeteria. But when summer arrives, that guarantee goes away.

While service organizations in communities like Cape Girardeau help to fill the gap in the summer, scores of children in Southeast Missouri don't make it to the lunch table.

A Missouri pilot program set to launch this summer aims to combat childhood hunger using technology and federal and state cash.

Billed as the Summer Electronic Benefit for Children program, the initiative will employ the electronic benefit transfer infrastructure of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the state's next-generation food stamp program. Families will receive a card, much like a debit card, which they can use to buy food in stores. The benefit is valued at $60 per child per month during summertime. The assistance funds cover only basic grocery items -- no hot or fast food.

"This is a landmark opportunity to use our ingenuity to combat childhood hunger and reach kids during the summer months, when we know it is challenging to receive the nutrition they need," said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Missouri, one of three states in the pilot program, received a $230,000 demonstration grant from the USDA. Leveraging the resources of several partnerships, total funding is expected to reach $680,000, according to Scott Rowson, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Social Services.

The pilot program is expected to assist some 5,000 children in the Kansas City area, but the hope is to learn from the demonstration and expand its reach in Missouri and beyond.

"The lessons we learn from these demonstrations -- to strengthen and complement existing programs -- will help shape the nutrition assistance safety net for the future, and have the potential to be a welcome additional resource for families worried about feeding their children," Vilsack said.

About 900,000 Missourians receive food stamps, nearly one-sixth of the state's population, according to Rowson. A record-setting average of 43.3 million Americans, or an eighth of the national population, collected food stamps in 2010, according to the USDA.

In Cape Girardeau, organizations like the Salvation Army, the Cape Family Resource Center and summer camps provide programs and meals to children during the summers, at reduced prices or through full scholarships for those without the means to pay.

But John McGowan, director of community impact for the United Way of Southeast Missouri, said many children continue to fall through the cracks. All of the summer camps United Way funds are maxed out, with some 450 students attending, he said. With state budget cuts, summer school has all but dropped enrichment programs, so some low-income students who would have received a hot meal are missing out.

Last semester, about 60 percent of students in the Cape Girardeau School District receive free or reduced lunches based on income eligibility. The rate is a district high 87 percent at Franklin Elementary School.

Despite the efforts of the schools, churches and community organizations, McGowan said, children still are going to school hungry, a stumbling block to success in the classroom.

"If you are hungry, your main concern is not what someone in front of you trying to teach you, it's, 'Where am I going to get my next meal?'"

mkittle@semissourian.com

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