Childhood Hunger ProgramsJulie Huse, Danon Hare, Bethany Reyna

May 15th, 2018

• Julie Huse, Government Programs Manager• Kids Cafe, CSFP, TEFAP

• Yalanda Jackson, Youth Services Coordinator

• Michael Striebich, Youth Services Coordinator

• Lisa Chappell, Government Programs Coordinator

• Bethany Reyna, BackSnack Program Manager• BackSnack, School Pantry

• Danon Hare, Programs Coordinator

Harvesters Team

Hunger in Our Region

• 241,830 food insecure children in Missouri

• 131,130 food insecure children in Kansas

• 30,760 (18.7%) food insecure children in Jackson County, MO

• 8,490 (19.5%) food insecure children in Shawnee County, KS

Indicators and Challenges

• Indicators of Chronic Hunger

• Dry skin or hair

• Overweight or obese

• Short attention span, behavior issues, difficulty forming friendships

• Tendency to be sick more frequently and less likely to recover easily

• Challenges for Chronically Hungry Children

• More likely to have impaired physical, intellectual, and emotional development

• Likely to have lower academic achievement from lack of concentration and lack of preparation

• Likely to have more social and behavioral problems

HOW KIDS CAFE WORKS

• Childhood Hunger Initiative

• Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)

• Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)

Kids Cafe

• Breakfast

• Lunch

• Snack

• Supper

• Fresh Meals• Delivered

• Prepared Onsite

• Shelf Stable Meals

PROGRAM BENEFITS

• Free

• Students eat healthier• Improvement in school performance

• Healthy eating habits

• Training

• Administrative Assistance

Kids Cafe

ELIGIBILITY

• After-school Program

or

• Summer Program • Must be in a qualifying area

and

• Must Provide:• Storage space

• Serving space

• Staff

• Meals to 20+ kids

Kids Cafe

• CACFP 2017-2018• 37 sites in Kansas

• 39 sites in Missouri

• Meals served 201,042*

• SFSP 2018• 17 sites in Kansas returning from 2017

• 5 Kansas site applications in progress

• 30 sites in Missouri returning from 2017

• 18 Missouri site applications in progress

* As of March

Kids Cafe

For more information about Kids Cafe please contact kidscafe@harvesters.org or call 816-929-3262

BackSnack• Began in 2004-2005 school

year• Less than 10 schools• Serving about 300 students

per week

• Each bag has two breakfasts, one milk, one water, two meals, and four snacks.

• Currently serving 487 schools in 206 districts

• Distributing about 18,500 bags per week

BackSnack Program Evaluation

• Evaluation of the program included: effect on students receiving the food, perception of the program, and how the families used the food when the students brought the bag home.

• Program is intended for individual student consumption, but we suspected the families were utilizing the food as well.

• We surveyed the teachers, students, and parents

Program Evaluation Results

• Grades improved

• Attentiveness and on-task behavior improved

• Classroom participation and engagement improved

• Tardiness, discipline issues, and visits to the school nurse decreased

2017-2018 School Year

• Distributed 18,500 backpacks a week with a total of about 572,000 bags so far this year

• 2.4 million pounds of product, including 64,000 pounds of produce

• 487 Schools in 206 districts, including 145 community partners

• Some schools already have a pantry at their school, stocked by internal food drives and teachers

• Other schools would like a pantry at their school, but don’t have the resources available to start one

• Survey of the teachers (2016-2017 school year)• Reported that some students don’t like to take the bags home

• Stigma associated with the BackSnack bags

• Requested additional produce options

• Would be willing to give up some BackSnack bags to serve families in different ways

School Pantry

School Pantry• Children are sharing BackSnack with

their families

• Schools are requesting additional options for serving their families

• BackSnack is intended to serve individual student, but is currently trying to serve the whole family

• We hope that this option could provide additional items, more produce, wider variety

School Pantry

• Pilot Pantries• Three schools in the Kansas

City Area

• Plan for expansion in the fall

• Model options• Traditional Pantry

• Pop Up Pantry

Presentation Notes

Hunger In Our Region:• In 2016, there were 241,830 food insecure children living in the state of Missouri. There were

131,130 living in the state of KS. 30,760 of those children live in Jackson County. That means that 18.7% of children living in Jackson County are food insecure. Many of those children are in families that are not eligible for government assistance, like WIC or SNAP.

Indicators and Challenges:• When we are training our schools on how to recognize children that might be in need of food

assistance, here are some of the indicators we ask them to look for. They might have dry skin or hair, and they are more likely to be overweight. When someone is food insecure, they are more likely to eat low cost food, often meaning fast food or highly processed food.

• They are also more likely to have a short attention span, behavior issues in class, or difficulty forming friendships. They might also be sick more frequently from lack of nutrients and a balanced diet.

• Some of the challenges that chronically hungry children face is that they are more likely to have impaired development, lower academic achievement, and more social and behavioral problems.

Kids Cafe:• HOW KIDS CAFE WORKS As part of its Childhood Hunger Initiative, Harvesters offers the Kids Cafe after-school

and summer program. • The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federal program that provides reimbursement for healthful

meals and snacks served to children and adults.• Just as learning does not end when school lets out, neither does the need for good nutrition. The Summer Food

Service Program (SFSP) provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need to learn, play, and grow, throughout the summer months when they are out of school.

• Sites choose one of the following: • Daily delivery of fresh meals to the site, free of charge (some restrictions apply). • Meal preparation by your onsite staff with a set reimbursement (training provided). • Shelf stable meals delivered to your site free of charge.

• PROGRAM BENEFITS • Harvesters provides the program free of charge to eligible sites. • Students eat healthier, which helps them do better in school and improve their chances for success. • Students learn healthy eating habits, reducing their risk of chronic disease in adulthood. • Harvesters provides all training and assists with program set up and administration.

• To be considered for the Kids Cafe program, sites must: • Offer an after-school or summer program to children in a qualifying area where the closest school or

census data has 50 percent or more of the students receiving free or reduced price lunches. • Provide adequate space for storing food and serving meals.* • Have staff to administer the program, sign for meals upon delivery, perform daily attendance and meal

counts and act as liaison between the site and Harvesters.* • Harvesters Capacity for sites is 70• Meals served for CACFP is through March

BackSnack:• BackSnack started at Harvesters in 2004, serving less than 10 schools (mostly in the KC area) and about 300 students per week. As

the program has grown, we have expanded to serving 487 schools in 206 school districts. The number of students served has grown to about 18,500 bags per week. Each bag has two breakfasts, one milk, one water, two meals, and four snacks.

• In the 2015-2016 school year, we conducted a program evaluation. We wanted to know if the program had an effect on academic performance and behavior, how the students perceived the program overall, and how the BackSnack food fit into the framework of food available to each family. The program is designed to be food for the individual student, but we suspected families were utilizing the food in the bag for family meals.

• Over the course of the 2015-2016 school year, grades improved in math, science, social studies and English• Schools reported that students attentiveness and on task behavior improved by 10%, classroom participant and engagement

increased by 10% • Tardiness decreased by 9%, visits to the school nurse reduced by 8%, discipline issues reduced by 12%

School Pantry:• After listening to the responses during the program evaluation, we started to wonder if other options might be helpful for the

families. Some schools already stock and distribute extra food through a pantry at their school, and other schools were requesting resources to start a pantry at their school. When we conducted a survey of the teachers, many reported that they had difficulty getting students to take the bags home on a regular basis, especially as the students got older. The teachers are aware of the stigma associated with the bags. The teachers also requested more variety and more produce to distribute to their families. They also reported that they would be willing to give up some of their bags.

• We know the children are sharing with their families and that the larger items in the bags are being absorbed into the familypantries.

• Schools appreciate BackSnack but often request other ways to serve their students’ families.• We have schools that have been requesting a pantry style feeding program at their school.• We hope that this option could provide full size items that families can use for meals, instead of items just for students. This could

also mean providing more produce and a wider variety of items, as the BackSnack items tend to stay similar year to year.• This spring we piloted the school pantry option at three schools in the KC area. We distributed items like rice, canned beans, canned

fruit, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, fresh onions, potatoes, and cantaloupe. We are planning to open it to all schools in the fall and we hope to expand to 20 schools by the end of the next school year.

• We are currently offering two model options. Traditional pantry—similar to a regular pantry; shelving and ability for families to shop. Pop-Up pantry—same day drop off, allows schools to distribute food without having to store the food at their school.