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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Become a Summer Meals Champion webinar. Thanks for tuning
in, and we hope to have a good webinar today for all. My name is Jimmy Nguyen. I work for
the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. I'll be your moderator today, and I'll also give
everyone here a little bit of background information on the Summer Food Service Program. We have
a fine list of presenters today and panelists because we're going to have a panel discussion
after some brief presentations by our guest presenters. We have Harriett Phillips from
the Office of Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. She is a representative obviously of an elected
official, so we'll get her unique perspective on how Governor Mike Beebe has made Summer
Meals a priority in his state. We have Ashley Krebs from Project Bread in Massachusetts.
They are a Summer Meals advocate, a non-profit organization that really does great work in
Massachusetts. We have Robin Safley from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services. They are a rock star state agency that really takes Summer Meals seriously,
and they do great work. So we'll get their perspective on just how they do it. And then
we have Jennifer Puthoff from the YMCA of Silicon Valley. And I know you all are really
interested in what she has to say because she's from Silicon Valley, and they always
have unique and innovative things going on. Okay, just some logistics about this webinar
tool that you see on your screen right now. You can ask a question at any time. In the
lower left-hand corner is a Public Chat box. Ask questions all throughout the presentation,
and we will try to answer your questions right there in the Public Chat. Or the last 10 to
15 minutes of this webinar, we're going to have a Q&A session. During the last 15 minutes,
you can also dial "star 1" on your telephone to ask a question over the phone; and we'll
be able to hear your nice, sweet voice. Here is a list of our Summer Meals webinars coming
up. We have them all throughout March and April, so stay tuned for more. We'll also
be sending you this PowerPoint presentation after the webinar so that you can access all
these links that you see on your screen today. But that will be after the webinar. Okay,
so briefly, why should you get involved? 21 million children receive free or reduced-price
meals during the school year, but we only reach a fraction of those eligible children
during the summer. So that means that when they're out of school, they don't have the
same access to the free or reduced-price meals that they had in school. So we need your help
to make sure that these children don't go hungry during the summer. I know that was
a lot of numbers; there are millions in there. But to put it more simply, out of every six
students that get free or reduced-price school meals, only about one in six receives a summer
meal. That's not a good percentage -- maybe in baseball or darts, but not if we're trying
to feed hungry children. So what's the problem? Why are we only reaching one out of six children?
It's because families don't know about the program; and if they do, families don't know
where the sites are. Sites are basically the places that kids and teens go to eat the summer
meals. There is also a lack of transportation to Summer Meals sites. When kids are going
to school, they get bussed to school. But during the summer, usually those school buses
are not in service. There is a lack of sponsors and a lack of sites, and also a lack of volunteers
to help out at the sites where Summer Meals are served. And I'll go over a little bit
about what a sponsor and a site is in just a few minutes. Basically, what is the Summer
Food Service Program? It's funded by the Federal Government, the USDA, the Department of Agriculture.
And then each state agency administers the program. So the state agency that administers
the Summer Food Service Program could either be the State Department of Agriculture, like
Robin Safley, one of our guest presenters today from Florida. It could be the State
Department of Education or Health and Human Services. We will send you a list of the state
agencies after this webinar so you know just who it is. Another program basic, low-income
kids 18 years old and younger receive free and nutritious meals at the sites I was telling
you about. So organizations, schools, local government entities, can serve the free and
nutritious meals at safe and convenient sites. This program operates when school is not in
session, usually during the summer; but there are some year-around schools out there that
can also operate this program. What are the benefits? Obviously, children get the food
that they need to continue learning, playing and growing. And it obviously helps out families
with tight food budgets. During the school year, these families are helped out by the
free and reduced-price school lunches and breakfasts; but during the summer, they have
to take on that extra food cost. And so this program helps them out with that. The sites
usually provide a lot of cool physical and mental activities that keep the kids engaged.
This is very important because obviously a lot of you have heard about the summer learning
loss. A lot of low-income kids during the summer don't get the advantages of going to
some of these summer schools and doing these extracurricular activities. So these Summer
Meals sites can take on that role. I think Jennifer Puthoff from the YMCA of Silicon
Valley is going to talk about a unique partnership that she's trying to undertake with libraries,
where libraries can serve summer meals and kids can have access to all those fun activity
at libraries. These are the main players, as I've mentioned before. The Federal Government
provides funding to state agencies. State agencies train the sponsors. The sponsors
train the sites. And the sites need volunteers and promoters. And then the kids and teens
eat those free and nutritious meals and have fun. What is a sponsor? I listed some sponsors
there on the screen; you can see their logos. There are big national organizations that
can be sponsors like Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, Catholic Charities. But small community
groups and faith-based groups can also be sponsors. The sponsors take on the lion's
share of the burden. They sign the contract with the state agency; and they take on the
financial, administrative and food service responsibilities of SFSP. There is a lot to
go into, but I just wanted you to get the basics. If you're serious about being a sponsor,
you have to work with your state agency to go ahead and do that. And here is basically
a list of what the sponsors do. I won't get into it; but if you're interested in it, again,
contact your state agency and review this PowerPoint presentation when we send it to
you afterwards. What is a site? There is a lot of confusion between sponsors and sites.
Basically, the site is the actual place where the meals are served. The sponsor can be a
food bank, a YMCA, a Catholic Charities; but they can bring the food to a site anywhere.
The site can be in front of an apartment or a housing complex. The site could be in a
bus. I think Robin Safley might be going over that. They have some good examples of mobile
Summer Meals sites. It's basically anywhere kids go during the summer, you can serve the
Summer Meals. It has to be a place where kids go, and also it has to be safe and convenient
for them to access. What does a site do? You can kind of see what they do. Basically, it's
run by staff or volunteers. They're trained by the sponsor. They order and receive the
meals. They tell the sponsor, "Hey, I think at our site we'll have maybe 20 kids show
up; so we'll need 20 meals." Some sites might have 200 kids. You have to work that out with
your sponsor. The most important part is we encourage all sites to plan fun physical and/or
mental activities at their sites. So that's basically a site in a nutshell. We recommend
that if you are new to the program, you're an organization that's just learning about
the Summer Food Service Program, we recommend that you start out as a site first. It's easier,
and then you get kind of a feel for program; and then you can maybe work your way up to
becoming a sponsor. How can you help out as an organization or a business? Obviously,
be a sponsor, be a site; or, if you don't want to be either of the two, you can help
out a site or a sponsor with transportation or promotion. Some of speakers will talk about
that later. How can you help out as an individual? Even though you don't represent an organization,
if you're a concerned individual or a parent, you can help out in so many ways. You can
go out there and find organizations that maybe are perfect candidates to be a summer site
or a summer sponsor. You can promote the program by hanging up signs or e-mailing people, sending
letters. You can volunteer at a Summer Meals site. You can plan activities with the kids.
You can help with cleanup. You can even help deliver some of the meals or prepare some
of the meals. And obviously, you can work with your school. If you're a parent or a
teacher, the most important part is keeping the schools involved with the Summer Meals
Program. When it comes down to it, I guess over 50% of Summer Meals sites are at schools;
and we always need schools to keep their doors open during the summer, or rather when school
is not in session. Okay, I hope that wasn't too fast for you. It's not as complicated
as I make it out to be. But if you want to be a sponsor or a site, there is a lot more
to learn. I am now going to hand it over to Harriett Phillips and start her presentation.
Harriett is from the Office of Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. She is doing wonderful work in
Arkansas. Go ahead and take it away, Harriett. Good afternoon from Little Rock, everybody.
We're glad you're on. When we began the No Kid Hungry campaign in September 2010, we
didn't have any place to go but up. Arkansas ranked number one in childhood food insecurity
in the country. As you can see, we have made good progress in three and a half years. Unfortunately,
I'm not going to be able to share any silver bullets with you; but I will share some key
factors that have made and continue to make all the difference in Arkansas. The first
is leadership. From the initial meeting until today, Governor Beebe has set the tone. He
made it very clear that our status as number one in childhood food insecurity was not acceptable
under his watch; that he expected a change; that he believed that he had the team that
could make a change; and he gave us the responsibility and authority to do things differently. He
empowered us. And everyone on the team, from the state agency directors down to the folks
on the ground, everyone knows and feels this. From the beginning, everyone on the team knew
the end goal for 2015. They knew where we needed to be by 2015. Our yearly goals are
set with the end game in mind. We have quarterly check-in calls, where we make adjustments.
Those calls also help us keep very focused. Share Our Strength is our partner. They gave
us a playbook. So we didn't have to start from scratch on figuring out what to do. We
have an amazing on-the-ground execution team. The No Kid Hungry Team, we have four people
on the No Kid Hungry Team that work on recruitment and technical assistance. We have one person
that is solely charged with retention. Her goal is to retain 85% of the previous year's
sponsors. We have two state agencies that work on summer feeding, our Department of
Human Services and our Department of Education. They work the administration compliance side.
They have given the No Kid Hungry Team access to the State database. So when the No Kid
Hungry Team is out in the field, they can pull up the status of the sponsor's application
and be able to tell that sponsor exactly where the application process is. All of the teams,
both the No Kid Hungry and the state agencies, work seamlessly. And the sponsors really don't
have a clue who is which. They just know they're there to help them. Our key strategies -- I've
already mentioned retention. We do have one person dedicated to retention. They go to
work immediately after the summer has finished. They call every sponsor. They know the sponsors.
They go out and meet with them. And they help work out problems and help the sponsors overcome
their (inaudible). I'm going to go back. Recruiting sponsors -- we have worked out this rubric
that's below. One of our No Kid Hungry field team worked out this rubric to help us really
zero in on what makes a good sponsor so that we can assess the likelihood of success when
recruiting a sponsor. We engaged local champions. We form a team of leaders from a town or county.
We know that they're going to know who the most likely sponsors and sites are going to
be. We work with State associations, county judges. sheriffs, mayors, school administrators,
Chambers of Commerce, hospitals. And we make presentations. We're at their annual meetings,
where we have a booth. We have a goal to have every county with at least one site, and we
use the power of the Governor's Office through his weekly radio addresses, weekly columns,
to highlight missing counties. We did that last summer. It came out on a Saturday. And
Monday morning, our phone lines were lighting up with the missing counties. So we were able
to really make some headway there. And then we've also used the Governor's Office External
Relations Team. Every time they go out to meet with someone in the county or a town,
they are very well-versed on the No Kid Hungry campaign. They take a packet with them and
talk about our program. Mobile feeding sites -- we feel this is a key strategy for feeding
more kids, especially in the rural areas. I know our Department of Human Services visited
Florida, and we're going to be interested in hearing what all you have to tell us about
that. Last summer we teamed up with PepsiCo and were able to add 55,000 more meals in
Central Arkansas. And we are in the process, after our visit of Florida, of converting
a school bus to do mobile feeding this summer. The other strategy is mini grants from Share
Our Strength. This helps sponsors with equipment, transportation, supplies; and it really helps
mitigate a sponsor saying they can't participate for a certain reason. So mini grants are very
important to us. And then the last strategy I would offer is just don't be afraid to try
new things, to challenge the status quo, particular in a state agency, the way they do things.
And then to remember that USDA is our friend. They're here to help, so don't be afraid to
ask for waivers and let them know what barriers you're encountering. Hopefully, they can help
us overcome those barriers. Thank you. Thanks so much, Harriett, for that great presentation.
I like what you sad about fearlessness. Just go out there and ask a lot of us. If you have
any suggestions for USDA, just go ahead and share your ideas and your questions. We're
here to try to help you all out as well. I'm going to turn it over to our next presenter,
Ashley Krebs, from Project Bread in Massachusetts. Take it away, Ashley. Hi, everyone. Thanks
so much for having me today. I know USDA is putting on a wealth of different webinars
over the next coming weeks, but I think today we're going trying to focus in a little bit
on sponsor and site recruitment and retainment specifically. So there's my plug to make sure
you listen to all the rest of them because I'm sure there are a lot of other information
coming in. But really look at anybody that's on the call today that might be able to do
some work around this. Let me explain a little bit more about our role. We're very fortunate
here in Massachusetts to work very closely with our state agency. Project Bread, as a
non-profit organization, holds a contract with our Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education to provide outreach within the state of Massachusetts around the Summer Food Service
Program. We are a small team of five. And as I said, we're really fortunate to be able
to have staff on the ground specifically working around this. Some of you in other states might
have similar teams that you could work with or are part of, or you might be able to take
certain pieces of what I talk about and implement it within your own state. This year we're
really focusing on when we look at sponsor site recruitment and/or retainment, really
focusing on a community-wide approach to Summer Food Service Program. Although in a particular
community you might have one sponsor overseeing that program, not letting all the responsibility
fall on them. Really looking at how can you create a partnership within the individual
communities to really help support the program and make it as effective as possible. We hold
annually a Summer Food Service Program kickoff. We just held that this past February. It's
a great way to be able to not only engage and prepare the existing sponsors for the
coming summer, but also invite potential new sponsors that some people might be working
with or be aware of to really start thinking about summer early. As we know, summer is
here before we know it. And if you wait till even the month before, there is a lot of planning
that could have happened beforehand to help you have a successful program. To help with
really the site recruitment part and finding out where there are programs throughout your
state or community that might be already engaging youth over the summer months but are not teamed
up with a Summer Food Service Program, we do a postcard mailing. You can see over on
the right-hand side of this slide is an image of the front of our post card that says, "The
Summer Food Service Program, Food That's In When School Is Out." On the back side of that,
we have a small little message just inquiring if people currently operate a business or
a program that engages low-income youth within a particular part of their community. Or if
they're interested in being a sponsor, etc., contact us, the Child Nutrition Outreach Program.
We sent this out to around 3,000 contacts just this past week, and we have already started
to receive calls. So that's one way that it's more of a cold mailing type situation where
we just do general searches to typical programs -- a lot of YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, any
local agencies within our targeted community -- to put that feeler out there and see if
there might be a program. And each year, it proves to be pretty successful to be able
to engage new potential sites and connect them with a local sponsor. We as a team work
as the middle man here, where we will hear from a particular site or sponsor that's interested
and then connect them with the appropriate person. We also have great communication with
our state agency, so they're aware of that as well so they can help facilitate any sort
of issues around applications or eligibility. As Harriet already touched upon, grants are
another great way to support either existing sponsors or sites or new ones. Project Bread
as an organization offers grants each year to both sponsors and sites. That can help
with either new or existing ones to really overcome any sort of barriers with starting
a site or becoming a new sponsor or looking to incorporate new things into your program.
We adjust our grant categories annually. But some things might be introducing a nutrition
education curriculum or looking at offering programming at sites -- so really ways to
expand what's happening at those existing programs and then also help with some of the
startup costs such as equipment, food-safety equipment as well, such as coolers or thermometers.
Additionally, our state agency offers grants for both startup and expansion. So that's
something that if you have the capacity within your state or community to offer, it can be
very helpful and also a nice tool to be able to have, especially in the recruitment process,
to say not only are you feeding hungry kids but we can help make it happen by supporting
your organization through a grant. Community meetings are something else that we think
is really, really crucial for both starting and expanding your program, looking at sponsors
and sites. We will go into a community and facilitate a meeting of all of the stakeholders.
Usually that involves really getting back to that community-wide approach piece, where
we will invite either a new sponsor or an existing one and really look at who are the
players or the partners in a community that could come to the table. So we might invite
a mayor or a town manager. We'll have local libraries, the police department, the fire
department, local agencies -- YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs -- anyone that might be able
to might be able to benefit or contribute to the Summer Food Service Program and get
people around the same table. In a scenario where we're talking about something that's
new to a community, such as if the Summer Food Service Program hasn't existed before,
this is a great opportunity to talk about where are there kids already over the summer
months. Is there a program at the library that this sponsor didn't know about and could
feed kids? Is there an area where children are already congregating that's in an eligible
are that no one really know about outside of the police department because they do some
sort of camp there over the summer months? So it's really a great way to open the dialog
and create this community approach. We do, in terms of just ways to target that outreach,
because obviously if you're in a large state or you have lots of different communities
that will be working on this program, it could be challenging to think about where to start.
So we do look at targeting newly-eligible areas as one way, by looking at schools that
are newly-eligible -- so they might have reached the 50% free or reduced category -- or looking
at newly-eligible census tracks. These are things as well, if you're not familiar with
this terminology, that I'm sure your state agency or your local outreach team could help
you with. But that's a way to be able to look at areas that might have newly-eligible areas
and look at what programs exist that you could bring into the Summer Food Service Program
that previously were not. We do have a mapping tool through the Child Nutrition Outreach
Program. I know a lot of other states have started to look at mapping through Summer
Food Service Program. And so definitely check with your local state to see if this is something
that you already have in existence. Our mapping tool is the bottom picture on the right-hand
side; I'm sorry it's small. Please feel free to visit our website or reach out to us for
more information. But basically, it overlays census data/school data, as well as meal sites
throughout the state. So you can search for a particular address and look at where are
the existing sites and where is the existing eligibility.
This is something that can be helpful for outreach, but for the purpose of this call
is really helpful for looking at either recruiting sponsors or expanding sites. If there is already
an existing sponsor, you can see where there are deficits; where there are not sites and
eligible children. And so that's something that if you don't already have or you do have,
you might want to consider from a planning standpoint, as opposed to just the outreach
piece, because it can really be helpful in gaining more sites or sponsors in areas where
the needs are not being met. The other thing in terms of -- I think it was brought up about
reaching out to USDA for waivers. One area that we've started to explore as a team, at
least in Massachusetts there is a large number of families that are homeless that are residing
in hotels and motels currently due to a temporary housing shortage. And we found that the traditional
congregate feeding model of the Summer Food Service Program was challenging to be able
to make work at these locations. But there are obviously children that could benefit.
So our state agency was able to apply to USDA for a waiver that made it much for flexible
for the hotels and motels to be sites. And we're happy to say that we've been able to
feed a significant number of children through that waiver. And it's something that we hope
to continue this coming summer. So that's another area, is looking at where are the
children in your community and maybe some unlikely sites -- such as a hotel or motel,
which you wouldn't normally think of -- through the Summer Food Service Program. And then
lastly I'll say just constant contact with sponsors, especially with the retainment piece
of it. Our coordinators are always in touch with the sponsors that already exist within
the state. As I mentioned, we have a really great dialog with our state agency. So if
a problem arises, we know about it hopefully right when it starts and can intervene and
hold a meeting and talk with the key players so that we don't have sponsors dropping out
or sites dropping out. So that's something I would just say; if you have the capacity
to keep in touch with the sponsors or sites even, even monthly check-ins or doing conference
calls with them and sending e-mails is a great reminder. We were able to recognize the wonderful
work that our sponsors and sites were doing at our kickoff this past February. At the
top you can see a picture. We had Congressman McGovern out to our event, which was very
exciting for us. And I think just also recognizing the wonderful work that's already happening
in your state is a great way to make sure that the sponsors and sites feel appreciated
for the wonderful work they're doing and brings us back into focus as to why we're all part
of this program. I think sometimes we get bogged down by the technical side of it. And
really pulling on people's heartstrings and letting them know that it's an important program,
I think has more weight than we sometimes think. I'm sure I'm over my time; so I will
hand it over to you, Jimmy. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, Ashley. I'm going to turn
it over now to Robin Safley. Take it away, Robin. Thanks, Jimmy. We're pretty excited
about this down here in Florida. As many of you may know, the Food and Nutrition programs
were transfused to the Department of Agriculture in January of 2012. So we're coming up on
our third summer, and we're very happy to report that the numbers are increasing. We
had a 5% increase in the number of meals served in year one, which is not shown here; it was
on the school year 2011. But last year, we had an additional increase of 11.6%, which
is about 1.3 million meals. So collectively, it's about a 17% increase. And our goal this
next summer is 20%. The way we kind of looked at it when we first took over a couple of
years ago was that first of all, summer is not just for two months out of the year. Summer
has got to be year-round because you have to do those off months of cultivating, working
with your sponsors, working on creating new opportunities for outlets for children to
participate, and creating awareness and building all of those relationships. So we immediately
divide our staff and put four people that all they do is summer. So coming into the
spring, they're signing up sponsors. And in summer, they're into sort of regulations and
maintaining the sponsorships. When they come out, they immediately go into data mode to
figure out where we were, where we need to be, what worked, what didn't. And they meet
with each sponsor and call them individually to see what worked, what didn't, any suggestions,
how can we better serve you. What we did also is knowing that the only two ways we could
affect this issue is to increase sites or sponsors, and second, increase awareness.
The first thing we did was we reached out to the Department of Children and Family,
which houses all of the SNAP information in Florida and runs the Food Stamp Program. And
we said, "Could you identify with data by zip code all of your SNAP households with
children under the age of 18?" And so they gave us that dataset, and we put that on a
map. And then we took our dataset of all of our sites, and we overlaid that on the map.
And immediately, it began to tell a story of where the children were and where we weren't.
So those became our targeted areas. We partner closely with Florida Impact, which is the
state of Florida's sort of childhood advocacy partner not-for-profit partnership. So we've
begun recruiting in those sites. We also are putting all of our summer program -- the training
-- online. Historically, anybody who wants to become a summer sponsor has to go through
training. And we feel it's pretty comprehensive and it's also highly regulatory. So the more
you can come in contact with the information that you have to learn or know in order to
be a sponsor, we believe the better sponsor you will be. So we are putting all of that
online, and it should be launched the end of March. We are very excited about that,
and we think that that will down the road become even a better tool. Obviously when
you look at the map of Florida and how big it is and how sort of long it is, one of the
big tools that we have come up with is mobile feeding sites. One of the things -- Harriet,
I believe we worked with you guys -- one of the things that we are doing is working with
the transportation departments at the schools. So if they have old buses, we can take those
buses and retrofit them with an awning or bench seating so that bus then can go into
a neighborhood or a hotel or an apartment complex or a housing authority and feed the
children there. And we're seeing that grow immensely. We as a state agency are willing
to wrap to bus with our logo so that it becomes an official bus so that the children know
it's a safe place to go out to. One of the targets that we're doing this year is the
housing authorities. We felt that that would be a perfect opportunity, so we have gotten
a list of all the county-run, city-run and state-run housing authorities and are approaching
them for partnership opportunities. And that's already showing great signs of success. Once
you have more and more sites available to kids, the other issue is awareness. And I
think what you're looking at on the screen right now is just some of our outreach materials.
We are expanding this year. Last year instead of waiting for an individual who might need
a free meal to see a brochure or to see a bus or to see a billboard, we thought, "Why
don't we just do a direct mail piece to all of the households who have children under
the age of 18 who receive SNAP?" So again, we received that dataset from our Department
of Children and Family. And we did a direct mail piece that goes out right at the end
of May. It's oversized, and it went to 700,000 households. And it was an incredible effect.
So we are again repeating that this year. It's highly successful, just direct. The other
thing we're adding this year is that we're going to be doing advertisement in movie theaters.
So that first 15 minutes when you're sitting in your seat before they start showing the
promos, you're going to see information on summer feeding. So we're excited about that.
The other thing that we did, and I know a lot of other states have, is the mapping capacity
on our website. And that's been very, very useful. But what we're doing this year is
we're working with a technology company that we're already doing something with. And they
are going to create an Afford a Food finder app that downloadable, where it can trace
those feeding opportunities in your environment. Once we create this -- we think it will be
ready within the next month -- we'd love to make it available free to all other states
who are interested. The state agency will have to be the sort of ownership of it so
that they can coordinate the data, so that as sites come up live, it's available; as
sites come down, it comes off the finder. So that's something that I'd be more than
happy if anybody wants to call us about as we promote that. We think that it could become
a very, very useful tool. Let's see -- we've got so much going on down here. The other
thing that we did that was really, really unique as you'll see on some of our outreach
material, we partnered with 211, which is a United Way agency. And the 211 agency by
nature already handles issues for at-risk populations -- whether it be housing, electricity,
it could be domestic abuse situations, etc. And we felt that they would be on the ground
in their community, already a natural partner. So what we do is we've contracted with them
throughout the state. It's the first ever statewide agreement for all of our 211 agencies;
they're all independent. So we've cobbled them up, created one joint venture. We give
them a stipend to help defray the cost, and they become our take-in agency. They also
do a report for us identifying the calls and where they come from and what the individual
saw that alerted them to the food being available. So this becomes a tool for us to understand
what outreach material really does work. We've also worked -- not just with summer feeding
-- but with our national school lunch programs with five of our professional teams who do
PSAs and outreach in the community to bring awareness to the summer feeding. We also renamed
our summer feeding "Summer Break Spot" to kind of make it more hip and user feeling
and not so institutionalized. But we've got a lot going on down here, and we'd be more
than happy to answer any questions on the other side of this. Thank you very much. All
right, thanks so much, Robin, for all the great work you're doing down in Florida. I'm
going to turn it over to our next presenter, Jennifer Puthoff. Thank you guys so much,
and I appreciate everyone being on the call this afternoon. My name is Jennifer Puthoff.
I'm with the YMCA of Silicon Valley. I'm the Director of Child Care and After School Programs.
Just to give you some perspective of what we do in our area, our organization is one
of the largest afterschool and summer camp providers in the county. We serve actually
two counties in our area. We have over 102 programs that operate during the school year
on school campuses. And during the summer, we serve close to 13,000 students and about
7,000 students a day during the school year programs. A majority of our programs actually
qualify for afterschool meals at the 50% free and reduced-price percentages. We actually
became a sponsor in 2008. We saw a huge gap in what the kids were being served after school
with regard to nutrition -- a lot of cookies and cakes and things. And so that brought
it to our attention; and being the YMCA and being grounded in health practices, we really
wanted to change the landscape of what nutrition looked like after school. So we actually started
our adventure into Summer Meals becoming a CACFP sponsor first. And we piloted afterschool
meals at several locations and then grew to about 50 or 60 or so locations. And then during
the summer, the gap started widening a bit as our summer schools were closing. Parents
in our county were making hard decisions whether or not they were going to put food on the
table or pay rent in our neighborhoods. And so when we saw a number of our students complaining
of hunger pains,-- they were getting behavioral suspension notices out of the classroom -- it
was something that the Y needed to do and to address. So we agreed with the Florida
statement absolutely. We really believe that hunger is a year-round process, and we address
this all year long. And it's also about really building community. So what we do is we really
brainstorm creative ways not to just serve children, but to serve families as well. So
we'll reach out to public and private funding to serve adults with additional funds so that
we can bring the whole family together. We bring so many community resources to the table,
so it's an all hands on deck approach when we institute Summer Meals. So we look at existing
partnerships in the community -- Boys and Girls Clubs and other folks that are already
having kids at the table that qualify. And the YMCA brings its technical knowledge of
Summer Meals and sponsorship to these local non-profits. So we really want to focus on
sustainability beyond Summer Meals and beyond school-year meals. So we'll reach out to our
local food banks and promote SNAP education and CalFresh so that there are wraparound
services and meals to go home with the families as well. We have volunteers from every walk
of life in our community, from kids to parents to adults. We work with our local universities,
the Pediatric Department at Stanford. We also work with clinics. Everyone who is invested
in health is at the table with us during the summer, which is great. We also sponsor non-traditional
partners, like libraries and churches and housing authorities like Catholic Charities.
And so our breadth is far and wide. We are constantly tenacious. We'll pick up the phone
often and call people or knock on people's doors about whether or not they've considered
Summer Meals. So we're constantly moving in the summer to garnish new folks to bring to
the table. We have fabulous working relationships with our local state agencies and work well
with them to ask the right questions and try to make all this happen beautifully. What
I wanted to put emphasis on is that we don't prepare any of our meals. The YMCA actually
works with a local vendor, and actually now national vendor, Revolution Foods. One of
the things we really wanted to make sure of was that the kids were not just getting food,
but they were getting healthy, nutritious and appetizing food that was culturally relevant
to their demographic neighborhoods and from their community. We also wanted to make sure
that we were promoting family dining practices, so we do have our families sit down and eat
with them. But we, again, will raise funds for adult meals separate from that of the
kids' meals. And I think that has really garnished a lot of attendance to our summer meal programs.
We also have great opportunities for engagement in activities that happen that wrap around
these Summer Meals programs. We know that kids don't just come to these sites to just
eat. There has got to be something else that's enticing the families to come as well. So
we'll have guest speakers; we'll have cook-offs and neat exercises from chefs that will come
and teach families how to prep and cook meals. We're really about changing behaviors around
nutrition, education and providing access in a fun and family-friendly environment.
And we really want to build a sense of community. So we'll invite teachers and local politicians
and community members to come and eat with us. And really our impact -- we've increased
meals service, and this is really beyond our wildest dreams. We started because we saw
a gap in our program, and it's really reached beyond the Y. We've moved to almost 800,000
meals this past year. We've received additional funding and donations that might not have
been there if we hadn't have been doing the work, really creating parent and family participation
in different ways in our programs and then partnerships. And our organization has really
promoted itself within the Summer Meals .I think what we have done that's really unique
as well is that we'll bring in sites underneath our sponsorship. But to create that sustainability,
we'll provide technical assistance about Summer Meals so that they (inaudible) who become
their own sponsor. We really see that the greater movement is coming together at the
grassroots level, working together, teaching each other the skills and the systems behind
these Summer Meals programs, and then supporting them to become a sponsor. I want to just thank
you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask on the Chat; and I will be happy to
answer those. Thanks. Thanks for your great presentation, Jennifer. And now that concludes
the formal presentations from our presenters. We're just going to have a brief panel discussion
before we turn it over to the audience for their questions. And I know you already put
in a lot of questions, and we'll definitely get to those. My first question is for panelists.
Obviously, we have four different players in the Summer Meals game. We have a local
non-profit; we have a state agency; a representative from an elected official's office; and then
we have an actual Summer Meals sponsor. Can each of you tell your peers out there how
they should get started with the Summer Food Service Program?" I guess we could start with
Harriett on this one. Tell me the question again, Jimmy, please. Basically, what would
you say to other elected officials or offices of elected officials out there? How would
you tell them to get started with the Summer Meals Program? I would tell them to call Share
Our Strength and start a No Kid Hungry program in their state. Share Our Strength has the
playbook; they have the best practices; you don't have to reinvent the wheel. What about
an individual? How could they approach an elected official to get involved with the
Summer Meals Program? What's the best way to contact an elected official about getting
involved with Summer Meals? I would just call the office. We get hundreds of calls a day
to the Governor's Office, people wanting to help. And we can always plug people in. All
right, that's simple enough. Jimmy, this is Robin. One thought would be that politics
is always at the local level too. So I think that connecting with your Members of the House
or the Senate or your county officials in your community always helps us as a state
agency come in with resources when there's already a groundswell and an awareness of
the importance of the issue. So I think communicating with your school boards, your county commission,
your city commissions, and your state elected officials is always helpful because the constituents
really have a lot to say. So that would be my thought. Thank you, Robin. Right now, it's
important to sign up more organizations to become sites and sponsors. Where do you focus
your attention? How do you know where to start? Right now for all the advocates and maybe
the state agencies, do you go by poverty data or look up where there are communities without
Summer Meals sites? What are the best areas to start? Jimmy, this is Robin. What we did
was we took our data for SNAP households who had children over the age of 18 and we overlaid
it with our sites, which immediately gave us an indication of where our weak links were.
And then we reached out to more systemic current sponsors -- like food banks, parks and recs,
schools -- who already had the infrastructure built in to get larger and encouraged them
to partner with more not-for-profits that were in the community so those not-for-profits
could be a site underneath the sponsorship. That was our approach. So we did do data mining.
Hi, Jimmy. This is to Ashley. To answer that, I think that if you're looking -- I touched
upon this a bit in my presentation -- but if you're looking at new sponsors, I definitely
think the way we look at it is try to find newly-eligible areas. So if there are new
communities that become eligible or towns or cities that do not have a program but now
have a 50% school or an eligible census track, reaching out to that community and having
some sort of meeting where you could invite elected officials -- the town mayor or manager,
depending on how it's set up in your state -- as well as those key players and really
expressing the need and doing a general overview of summer is one way to start. And then if
it's an existing program and you're just looking to add sites to it, similar models, where
you could look at prioritizing communities that are meeting the least amount of kids.
We in Massachusetts created, based off a FRAC model, created a statewide scorecard where
we looked at the number of kids that are being met over the summer months. And you can create
some sort of ranking that way to really look at honing in on those communities that could
be reaching more kids and those that are doing the best and develop best practices within
your state that way as well to really target communities. Those are excellent ideas, Ashley.
Thank you. I think we're going to cut off the panel discussion because we're close to
the top of the hour, and I want to get to the audience's great questions. Right now,
you can start typing in your questions if you haven't already. You can also dial "star
1" on your telephone to ask a question by phone. I'm going to read a question from Stephanie
Grant. I think this is for Jennifer Puthoff from YMCA at Silicon Valley: "If you don't
have the ability to prepare food, how would you suggest securing a food vendor?" This
is Jennifer. Thanks for the question. I was actually just about to put this in on Chat.
We were fortunate. We did a lot of searching around. It was really challenging for us because
when we presented the idea to some of the food service directors in our local schools,
they just didn't have the capacity to take on the number of sites that we had, which
was kind of surprising to us, during the summer. So we did a lot of blast out to certain groups
and were lucky enough to stumble upon Revolution Foods. I think the first place to start is
probably with your state agencies and asking them if there are any qualified vendors that
they're aware of that can meet the specific requirements for SFSP. There are a lot of
things that the vendors will need to be accustomed in terms of meeting the expectations for the
meals. We also had additional expectations as well in terms of things that we were looking
for nutritionally. So we went out to bid, and that was a lot of the process as well.
We also reached out to our local food service directors. So those were the two places that
we started first. And out of lack of access and other vendors being around, we were lucky
enough actually to work with Revolution Foods for the summer. Thank you, Jennifer. Our next
question is a technical question from Bernice Chukes. Her question is: "Are students required
to eat their meals on site?" And to answer the question, we have a resident Summer Meals
expert here at the USDA, (inaudible), to answer that question. Hi, everyone. The question,
are students required to eat their meals on site? We do have a congregate feeding requirement
in our program, but I think there has been some talk about different waivers and things
like that that USDA put out. "Waiver" is actually not the right word for it. We have a demonstration
project going that any sponsor can really opt into. It's called the Non-Congregate Heat
Demonstration Project for outdoor sites that don't have alternative operations in place.
On days when there is extreme heat, children can take meals off site. And it's an opt-in
option for sponsors that are applying to the program. This is the second year we're doing
it, and all of our state agencies have been trained on implementing that. So any sponsors
in the program that have questions should talk to their state agencies. As for specific
requirement for people generally participating, we do have something called the Traveling
Apple Policy that sponsors, at their own discretion, can allow children to take a fruit, vegetable
or grain component offsite. This is a little new. We had a variation of this policy last
year that we kind of expanded on this year. Again, your state agencies have been trained
on it. So if you have any questions about that going forward, please do contact your
folks at the State. Kimberly, do we have any questions over the telephone lines? Our first
question comes from Natasha Tupper. Your line is open. You may ask your question. Thank
you. We are not a sponsor. We are a feeding site. And in our area, in the downtown area,
we have a large number of indigenous and homeless and some that also live in the homeless shelters.
I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how to kind of branch out from our
location where we [audio break] to be able to, A, take the food to the homeless children
that are in the shelters with their parents; or, B, somehow [audio break] for feed them
during the summer months? Sorry, your question is more of how do you create more sites? How
do you deliver more food to different areas where the low-income children are? Yes, either
take the meals to the homeless shelter or the children that reside there, or even if
it's possible to bring the children to our site? Hi, this is (inaudible) again. We have
a homeless component, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, that could do like feeding
year-round to homeless children. So that could be something that you could pursue. But if
you're just thinking about how your site could reach those homeless children, you could work
with those shelters just to let them know that their parents could walk their kids over
to the site. So maybe there's a little coordination that needs to happen there. You couldn't deliver
meals to that shelter, and that shelter would probably not be the ideal site. But since
you are a site, you could definitely just work with them, inform them about the availability
of meals, so that they know that they can come over every day. Okay, I see. Thank you
so much for your help. You're welcome. We have no additional questions in queue. All
right, so I guess we're going to go over a couple of minutes. You all can drop off the
webinar, but we're going to take some more questions since we started a little bit late.
I guess this next question is for all of our presenters out there who have attended or
organized a Summer Food Service Program kickoff event. The question is from Tammy: "What does
a kickoff event look like? Who should be there? What should it consist of, and how do you
plan one?" This is Jennifer from the YMCA Silicon Valley. We're really fortunate. I've
been a part of a number of kickoff events. I've seen variations of kickoffs, but certainly
inviting your local Members of Congress or your Mayor's Office or even the Governor.
In some situations, I've seen the Superintendent even show up. We've had NFL groups come, like
the 49ers have shown up at some of our kickoff sites. And it's just a big party and an opportunity
for also families to get to know other families that are going to be attending. But it definitely
requires a lot of marketing and a lot of backend work. We've had tons of volunteers at these
events as well. We've also had a schedule of all the Summer Meals opportunities and
activities for the rest of the summer at that event, just so there is that information available
ahead of time, as well as other locations that are nearby. So think big and think of
lots of great activities. This is great opportunity to also include your local universities or
recreation departments to come out and do physical activities with the kids and families.
And we've even had cook-offs and chef competitions and those types of things -- so lots of fun
and a good opportunity to get folks engaged early on during the summer. This is Robin.
I would agree with that. And obviously, since we're a state agency, any kickoff we do is
always from a statewide perspective. We usually hold it in the middle of the state. We have
our mascots from the team, which are the more fun aspects of the team sometimes. But the
thing that I think is important to follow through with is also having a letter to the
editor in each of the venues that you're trying to create awareness, sort of identifying it.
So it could show up in the newspaper the day after, so you get kind of legs out of the
event. This is Ashley. Just to add to that, there is the local level kickoff that we would
promote to all sponsors to be able to do in their local communities. And we see success
in both kicking off the summer and then almost doing like a mid-summer energy kickoff, where
it's rejuvenating. Oftentimes we see after that July drop-off -- so almost thinking about
doing one in August is a great option as well if you might not have the capability to do
it first thing in the summer. But we do one statewide, and we focus more on from a sponsor
standpoint to get all sponsors and sites together. This past year, we encouraged people to bring
a team -- so it wouldn't just be a sponsor coming, but maybe some of the people within
their community that really work on the program. So that's a strategy, and really focusing
on what do they need to know and what are some energizing thoughts to get them ready
for planning for the summer. One tip that was great that came out of that was sit down
now with a calendar and plan all of your events for the summer, or at least pencil in ideas.
So certain strategies like that could come out of the kickoff event, where you bring
all the sponsors together statewide. That's a good point, Ashley, about mid-summer site
and sponsor, sort of keeping everyone aware of the program because, like you said, a lot
of sites drop out or some sites are open just for a couple of weeks; they're not open all
summer long. All right, the next question is from Delphina Flowers. Her question is:
"What type of activities have the sites found the children to be most receptive to participate
in at a Summer Meals site?" Well, I'm not sure if anyone else wants to answer the question,
but I know from our experience, like I said over the PowerPoint presentation, that the
best type of programs offer enriching activities for the kids to participate in. So partnering
with local libraries to do reading challenges during the summer with families and getting
donated books. We've done kind of a Bingo card where every time that they come back
to the meal program or meal site location, they get a stamp on their card; and it could
lead towards another physical activity that they do that day. And then, again, we do some
wraparound services with other organizations, the non-profits, so it makes it interesting
both for the parents and for the kids. So we've had dental folks come out and talk about
taking care of your teeth, and we've had kids' coloring and other activities. It takes a
lot of time and planning ahead of time, but we haven't had anyone turn away from wanting
to come to these programs to do that. We also fundraise for additional funds and put staff
time into also creating a lot of other activities like painting and arts and access to cultural
activities like cultural dancing. We've actually had kids put on an event. So some cites will
do a thematic event every week. So by the Friday of that week, they'll put on some sort
of performance or play or some short activity that they'll do with the kids that week. And
this is usually a half hour before meal service or half an hour after meal service, there
will be some wraparound activities. Thank you, Jennifer. I would just like to add to
what Jennifer said. Don't be afraid to go out there and approach businesses or other
community organizations to have them come out to the sites. I know in the past there
have been sites that have a martial arts instructor come out every week and teach a lesson. There
was one site that partnered with a local bank so that a representative from the bank came
out and taught the kids and the teens about financial responsibility and what it means
to take care of your money and invest wisely. So just keep those in mind. You can definitely
get creative with what you do at your sites to keep the kids engaged and coming back.
I guess my last question for everyone there is from Misha Marvel. Her question was: "Has
anyone used social media for either sponsor or site recruitment or targeted community
awareness?" I know each of you have touched upon it, but what would you say has been the
most effective social media outreach activity that you've undertaken? This is Ashley. I
know that here in Massachusetts we launched a texting campaign a number of years ago,
and that's something that we promote throughout the state so that youth, especially the older
youth which are a typically harder age range to engage around the Summer Food Service Program,
have a technology that's relatable to them and hopefully able to access meal sites. So
similar to the app, it's just another feature that appeals to youth. Also, we do use twitter
and Facebook. Unfortunately, I think our reach is more to the providers of the program, which
can be useful. But if you have a strong social network, even with providers, one thing that
I think has been proven to be useful is even suggesting language for the providers, the
sponsors or the site coordinators, to use at their local level. So if you're at the
local level, I would definitely say, promote your program. I think that's a great way to
reach out through social media. But if you're from a more removed sampling, where you're
working with the sponsors and the sites, even providing sample messaging that they then
can plug into their own social media outlets is a great way to be able to use social media
as well. This is robin. In Florida, we did the texting also and will continue to do that.
But we're going to augment this year with an app for finding -- so they can locate you
on your smart phone where you are and where the food is around you. And we're looking
very hopefully at that -- that that will be something that reaches a lot of end users.
And we also do Facebook. All right, that concludes our webinar today. I just want to remind everyone
that the webinar has been recorded. After we edit it and provide some captioning, we
will post it on our YouTube channel. And we'll be sending all of you that link afterwards.
As well, we will send you the PowerPoint slides that you saw during this webinar. Thank you
all for joining. I would also like to thank all the guest presenters here with us today.
We had Harriet Phillips from the Office of the Governor in Arkansas; we had Ashley Krebs
from Project Bread in Massachusetts; Robin Safley with the Florida's Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services; and Jennifer Puthoff from the YMCA in Silicon Valley. Thank you
all for presenting today and all the wonderful ideas that you shared. Everyone, enjoy your
day. We'll see you for our next webinar. Thank you.