More summer campers in line for federal food program House bill would expand summer food program to all 50 states BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer Congressman Frank Pallone (D-6) with youngsters at Red Bank Recreation summer camp. RED BANK - - With stomachs rumbling and lunch bells ringing in their heads, Red Bank summer campers sat still Aug. 15, awaiting the arrival of Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6). The New Jersey congressman spoke about a bill he co-sponsored that would expand the Simplified Summer Food Program to all 50 states, including New Jersey at a press conference held at the Red Bank Primary School where the summer recreation program is held. The Simplified Summer School Program, a federal child nutrition program, provides up to two meals a day to children 18 years old and under during the summer, according to a press release from Pallone's office. Pallone said he wanted to use the Red Bank Summer Camp program as an example for the rest of the state. The summer camp, which had 110 campers enrolled this year, currently has a summer food program, but it includes a lot of paperwork and administrative hurdles in order to coordinate the program and get the funding that is needed, according to Pallone spokesperson Andrew Souvall. The Simplified Summer Food Program would simplify that paperwork and the other "bureaucratic hurdles" involved in the current summer food program at the camp, according to Souvall. It will eliminate complicated accounting and decrease administrative costs and provide sponsors with the full federal reimbursement, according to the press release from Pallone's office. "We know that food issues are very important in that area particularly with the high numbers of children in Red Bank that participate in the program during the school year," said Souvall. "We also wanted to highlight a program that is working quite well and show how things could be better with the passage of this bill" Also in attendance were former Red Bank Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr., who was standing in for Mayor Pasquale Menna, and several other borough and state officials, The summer food program was created in 2001 with 13 states and it has currently expanded to 26 states, not including New Jersey, according to Bylander. "We wanted it to be nationwide originally," said Bylander of the Simplified Summer School Program. "We've been asking each year and finally it is a possibility to see the whole country in the program." The 2001 pilot program was initiated in the states that had the lowest participation rates in summer food programs because those states needed more help in increasing their participation, said Bylander. The 13 states that joined the summer food program in 2001 currently have achieved, on average, a 51 percent increase in the number of children in summer nutrition programs, according Pallone's office. "Currently, New Jersey is only reaching 24 percent of all eligible children through the summer nutrition programs," said Bylander when she spoke Thursday. "This means that more than 200,000 children who receive free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches during the school year lose access to those vital meals during the summer months." The estimated cost of the bill would be approximately $35 million to add the remaining states and New Jersey would receive $1.5 million in federal food assistance, according to Bylander and Souvall. Pallone was able to get the expansion of the summer foods program included in the House agriculture appropriations bill for 2008, which passed in August, according to the press release. He wrote a letter to the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairperson Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) asking for it to be included, according to the press release. The next step is for the Senate to pass its agriculture appropriations bill and then see how it matches with the House's bill. If the bills are not an exact match, a conference committee will be created to reconcile the differences in the two bills. "If programs like summer camp are able to get federal dollars to pay for nutrition … [then] they can do other recreational [activities] with the money they do have," said Pallone, looking out into a cafeteria filled with children. The congressman had arrived on the last day of camp and after the press conference ended, the campers let out a deep breath and their thoughts became a reality. They were able to eat their lunches, provided through a program similar to the one they just had explained to them. --