Advocacy and Education: Child Hunger Program Reauthorization

This summer, Congress is due to reauthorize all federal child nutrition programs, all of which are administered by the USDA. These include the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).

When Congress considers reauthorizing these programs, they weigh their options in the following three areas: the amount of federal money allocated to these programs (overall and per state), the method through which federal money is allocated, and the method by which families apply to receive the benefits of these programs.

Each of these programs provides millions of children living in or near poverty with nutritious meals they might not otherwise have. In Arizona alone, on average more than 600,000 children benefit from the food provided by these five programs every month, and are better off for it. Recent studies have conclusively demonstrated that schools that serve breakfast to all students in the classroom show increases in standardized test scores, have fewer disciplinary problems and visit the school nurse's office less often.1

Listed below is an overview of Arizona's child nutrition programs.2