ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 151
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
216th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman TROY SINGLETON
District 7 (Burlington)
Assemblyman BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblyman GILBERT "WHIP" L. WILSON
District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)
SYNOPSIS
Urges Congress to pass "Summer Meals Act of 2015," which ensures children across America have access to quality meals during summer months.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on March 23, 2015, with amendments.
An Assembly Resolution urging Congress to pass the "Summer Meals Act of 1[2014] 20151," which ensures children across America have access to quality meals during the summer months.
Whereas, The Summer Food Service Program is a federally funded, state-administered program which reimburses public and private organizations that serve free healthy meals to children in low-income areas when school is not in session; and
Whereas, The earliest federal aid for school nutrition programs came from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932 and 1933 when it granted loans to several towns in southwestern Missouri to cover the cost of labor employed in preparing and serving school lunches; and
Whereas, In July 1943, Congress authorized the expenditure of federal funds in the form of cash subsidy payments to school lunch providers for the purchase of food to maintain and expand school lunch programs; and
Whereas, In 1946, the "Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act" created the National School Lunch Program to provide assistance to states for the establishment, maintenance, operation, and expansion of school lunch programs; and
Whereas, The Summer Food Service Program began in 1975 with residential summer camps and sites serving areas of poor economic conditions, where at least one-third of the children qualified for free or reduced price meals under the "Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act"; and
Whereas, Over 30 million children nationwide receive free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program, but only about two million children currently participate in the Summer Food Service Program; and
Whereas, The lack of access to healthy meals during the summer months makes children more susceptible to illness and other health issues; and
Whereas, Studies have observed that children who had not eaten overnight or in the morning were slower in memory recall, made more errors on tests, and were less able to solve simple visual tasks because they tended to focus more on peripheral information not relevant to the problem at hand; and
Whereas, On 1[June 25, 2014] February 27, 20151 , United States Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Lisa Murkowski introduced S. 1[2527] 6131 , the "Summer Meals Act of 1[2014] 20151 ," to improve the efficiency of the Summer Food Service Program; and
Whereas, The "Summer Meals Act of 1[2014] 20151" expands the Summer Food Service Program to more communities by lowering the eligibility requirements for communities seeking Summer Service Food Program grants and enables non-school organizations to participate in the Summer Food Service Program with greater ease by streamlining the application process for grants; and
Whereas, The "Summer Meals Act of 1[2014] 20151" also provides rural communities greater access to the Summer Food Service Program by awarding competitive grant money to fund the transportation of children to sites where summer meals are served and increases the number of meals available to participants to three meals per day; and
Whereas, Millions of children would benefit from an expansion of the Summer Food Service Program by gaining access to nutritious meals all year long; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House respectfully urges Congress to pass the "Summer Meals Act of 1[2014] 20151," which ensures children across America have access to quality meals during the summer months.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, each member of Congress elected from this State, and the Secretary of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.