Mercer Times

WASHINGTON, DC – On June 23, Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) reintroduced his Summer Meals Reaching Every Area's Child Hunger (Summer Meals REACH) Act to expand access to nutrition assistance through permanent flexibilities in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).

"In the most powerful country in the world, it is unacceptable that millions of our children worry about where their next meal will come from. I am proud to reintroduce this legislation which would combat child hunger and ensure kids across New Jersey and the nation are able to get nutritious meals over their summer break,” said Congressman Kim. “Local community programs do incredible work to combat food insecurity and summer hunger, and I believe Congress can do more to support their efforts. We can and should do better than short-term fixes. By breaking down barriers to summer meal programs, we can support local efforts to combat food insecurity and better support children’s health, education, and well-being that will set them up for long-term success.”

“It is important to recognize that we must do what we can to reduce the food insecurities in our communities, especially now during these hard economic times,” said Louise McCants, President and CEO of the Capital Area YMCA. “These waivers, which included allowing parents/guardians to pick up meals without their children present and permitting meals to be served in a grab-and-go style, allowed sponsors and meal providers to guarantee that children in underserved areas have access to meals during the summer months when regular school-based programs are not available. Extending these key flexibilities for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) that were implemented during the last three years would allow us to carry on with serving nutritious meals to children in Mercer County. We’re grateful to Congressman Kim for his important work on this issue.”

“While the emergency-phase of the pandemic may be long over, the secondary pandemic of food insecurity is a reality for far too many New Jerseyans," said Julie Gallanty, Interim CEO of the NJ YMCA State Alliance. "Healthy meals are the foundation for kids to meet their full potential. YMCAs across the state are working hard to meet community needs and feed kids across our diverse neighborhoods, but summer months present additional challenges. By expanding eligibility, allowing organizations to support sites that are further away, and permitting to-go meals as needed, Congressman Kim’s measure is critical in helping address summer hunger in communities throughout the state and across the country.”

"Hunger does not take a summer vacation,” said Lisa Pitz, Director of Hunger Free New Jersey. “Allowing flexibilities in the summer meal program makes it easier for organizations and school districts to operate the program and improves access for children, ensuring that they have healthy meals when school is not in session. This is an important bill, and we’re grateful for Congressman Kim’s thoughtful leadership on this issue."

The Summer Meals REACH Act would make certain flexibilities to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) permanent, including:

• Eliminating the area eligibility requirement, allowing all sites to serve free meals to all children;
• Eliminating the congregate feeding requirement, allowing grab-and-go meal service to continue;
• Modifying the monitoring requirements to allow sponsors to continue to monitor sites remotely, a flexibility that has allowed more community partners, like local YMCAs, to operate summer meal sites for the first time.

These flexibilities made meals more accessible to children during the COVID-19 pandemic and were extended during the 2022-2023 school year through the bipartisan, bicameral Keep Kids Fed Act, which continued the pandemic flexibilities based on Congressman Kim’s Summer Meals REACH Act. 

The Summer Meals REACH Act is endorsed by Hunger Free New Jersey and the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance and was originally introduced by Congressman Kim in 2021.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

Congressman Kim has been a leader on hunger issues in Congress, helping pass the Keep Kids Fed Act into law and voting to increase SNAP benefits and other programs through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan to help ensure working New Jersey families can put food on the table. He also advocated and helped secure funding for the White House Conference on Hunger, which he attended last September, 2022.

Congressman Kim is the Ranking Member on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. More information about Congressman Kim’s accessibility, his work serving New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, and information on newsletters and his monthly town halls can be found on his website by clicking here.

Original source can be found here