Children rate the summer food service program

Family Economics and Nutrition Review,  Wntr, 2004  by Nancy Cotugna,  Connie E. Vickery

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Another idea might be to conduct some "taste panels" with the children or take them on field trips to vendor sites where the meals are prepared and solicit their feedback. This may foster a feeling of "ownership" for the lunch program and promote better acceptance of menu items. Menu ideas could also be solicited from local school lunch program supervisors. They may be a useful resource for providing insights into foods that are favored by school-aged children in their programs. The national study (Gordon et al., 2003) also suggests nutrition education might encourage children to eat more variety and encourage supervisors to improve menus to reduce plate waste. Attention should always be given to quality-control issues as well. Methods of packing sandwiches, thawing items, and temperature control need to be monitored.

The meals offered by the Food Bank of Delaware's Summer Food Service Program complied with the nutritional guidelines of the Federal program. Nationally, about one-third of calories in the Summer Food Service Program are estimated to go uneaten. In the Delaware Summer Food Service Program, food waste was estimated to be 38 percent overall and 32 percent when condiments are excluded, thus supporting the national finding. However, only about 12 percent of calories in the National School Lunch Program are estimated to go uneaten, and this discrepancy between the two programs warrants further study.

In our sample, 5.4 percent of the children indicated that they would have had nothing to eat for lunch if they were not attending the Summer Food Service Program; another 12.2 percent would have had a nutritionally inadequate lunch if they had eaten it at home. Outreach to parents, particularly targeting single-parent families, with information regarding the program may help improve participation. To assist with Summer Food Service Program outreach efforts, the ERS (3) has recently developed the Summer Food Service Program Map Machine, a Web-based tool to help States determine whether program sites are located in areas of highest need and to help identify underserved areas.

Considering children's taste preferences when developing menus for the Summer Food Service Program should lead to reduction in plate waste and may favorably influence participation. Other States might build upon our pilot study by adapting the tools (4) we developed. Ongoing evaluation and monitoring of individual summer food service programs is always warranted in a continual effort to minimize plate waste and maximize program participation.