Children from low-income households who are part of the free and reduced lunch program will have two meal options during this year's summer recess: meals provided by the school district or Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). A recent survey conducted by the Urban Institute sheds light on which option these families prefer.
The Urban Institute report reveals that in-person meal programs, also known as congregate feeding, have been the predominant method of providing food to children from low-income households during the summer break. These programs, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program, require children to eat meals in person. "Participation in these in-person programs typically has been low, especially in rural areas where families may not live close to summer meal sites, which rarely provide transportation," stated the report.
According to the same report, Congress established two policy options in 2022. The first is school district–provided meals that can be consumed at home, such as grab-and-go meals. This option was made available for the summer of 2023. The second option is Summer EBT, a funded debit card given to families for grocery purchases. This will be available this summer. The report mentioned that grab-and-go programs were tested during the COVID-19 pandemic when children could not gather in person. Similarly, Summer EBT has also been tested and found effective. Another alternative is the Meals-to-You program, a USDA initiative piloted from 2019 to 2023 that delivered "shelf stable" food boxes to eligible households.
The Urban Institute surveyed households participating in the Meals-to-You program in August 2023 according to their report. Almost all participants are low income and reside in remote areas. For this survey, participants rated various meal options—home delivery programs, Summer EBT, congregate meals and grab-and-go meals—on a scale of 0 to 10.
The report concluded that the survey results showed a strong preference for Summer EBT cards, which received an average rating of 9.3 out of 10. The next preferred option was meal box delivery, scoring an average rating of 8.4. The congregate program and the grab-and-go program received average ratings of 6.1 and 6.0 respectively.
