2023 Summer Non-Congregate Meal Service

Key Findings

• Overall, sponsors of summer non-congregate meal service sites in 2023 viewed the program positively, indicating that they were able to provide more meals to more children at a cost less than or equal to congregate meal service.
• Sponsors provided non-congregate meals through meal pick up (79%), meal delivery (6%) or a combination of both (15%). Most also used at least one other available flexibility (parent/guardian pick up (74%), multi-day meal issuance (59%), bulk food distribution (32%)).
• Most sponsors (86%) planned to sponsor non-congregate meal sites in summer 2024. One fifth (19%) planned to expand non-congregate meal service by adding more sites and/or serving more meals.

Sponsor and Site Participation

Based on data collected from all State agencies that offered non-congregate meal service, there were 942 sponsors operating non-congregate meal service at 3,903 sites across the United States at some point in Summer 2023. Twenty-nine percent of sponsors were schools or school food authorities (SFAs) that operated SSO. The remaining 71 percent of sponsors were a mix of organizations administering SFSP, including SFAs, private non-profit organizations, other governments (local, municipal, or county governments or Indian Tribal Organizations) and residential camps. About 13 percent of all SFSP sponsors served non-congregate meals in July 2023.

Three quarters (76 percent) of non-congregate meal service sponsors reported non-congregate meals for two or three months in Summer 2023, and sixteen percent only reported meals for one month. This aligns with a typical school schedule, which includes two or three of summer vacation within the 5-month summer meal service period. Less than one percent reported meals for every month from May to September.

Most sponsors of non-congregate meal service (81 percent) operated fewer than five non-congregate sites (Figure 1), and 42 percent only operated one non-congregate meal site in Summer 2023. The proportion of single-site sponsors was slightly higher for non-congregate meal service in Summer 2023 than it was for congregate meal service in SSO and SFSP in Summer 2018 (35 percent).9 Though most sponsors of non-congregate meal service operated a small number of sites, a handful of sponsors had 26 or more sites. Together, these 17 sponsors, located in 10 States, operated nearly a fifth of all sites that served non congregate meals in Summer 2023.

Most respondents (98 percent) provided lunch or supper through non-congregate meal service, while 87 percent of respondents provided breakfast. The most common combination of meals served through non-congregate meal service was breakfast and either lunch or supper (85 percent). One in ten sponsors only served either lunch or supper through non congregate meal service and three percent of sponsors provided a snack with lunch or supper. The remaining combinations of meals were provided by less than 2 percent of sponsors.

Nearly one-third of the sponsors who responded to the survey (32 percent) operated only non-congregate sites; the remaining two-thirds operated both congregate and non-congregate sites (68 percent) (Figure 3). The data does not allow us to distinguish whether these sponsors were operating congregate and non-congregate sites in separate locations or if they were operating hybrid meal sites that provide both non congregate and congregate service at the same location.

About 4 in ten respondents (39 percent) who only operated non-congregate sites in Summer 2023 would not have operated congregate sites if the non-congregate option had not been available. This suggests that about 12 percent of all non-congregate meal service sponsors would not have participated in USDA Summer Meal Programs without the non-congregate meal service option.

Sponsor Experience

Nearly all (99 percent) of non-congregate meal service sponsors in Summer 2023 participated in summer meal services in previous years, most commonly through non-congregate meal service during the pandemic. Nearly two thirds of sponsors (63 percent) indicated that they provided meals through congregate meal service prior to 2023 and through non-congregate meal service during the pandemic.

Almost all sponsors agreed that non-congregate meal service allowed them to serve more meals and reach more children in Summer 2023. Most sponsors also agreed that they were able to operate more sites in Summer 2023 because of non-congregate meal service and that non-congregate meal service was less expensive to operate than congregate meal service, though the rate of agreement for both statements is noticeably lower than others.

Non-Congregate Meal Service Flexibilities

Most sponsors (94 percent) operated non-congregate meal service through meal pick up sites, either alone or in combination with meal delivery. Only 6 percent relied on meal delivery only. Most sponsors (85 percent) used at least one other non-congregate meal service flexibilities beyond selecting a meal service type. Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of sponsors allowed parents or guardians to accept non-congregate meals on behalf of participants.

More than half of sponsors (59 percent) reported that some or all of their sites participated in multi-day meal issuance in summer 2023 (Figure 8). Of those sponsors that participated in multi-day meal issuance, more than half (55 percent) distributed five to seven days-worth of meals at one time. Most of the remaining sponsors that participated in multi-day meal issuance (43 percent) distributed two to four days-worth of meals at a time. More than half of those sponsors that participated in multi-day meal issuance distributed foods in bulk (54 percent); a quarter of multi-day meal issuance participants said they only distributed milk in bulk.

Meal Pick Up Sites

Among respondents, 518 distributed non-congregate meals through pick up sites in summer 2023. Most sponsors (81 percent) operated pick up sites at schools (exclusively or in combination with other locations) (Figure 9). Other than schools, non-congregate meal pick up sites were mostly located at parks and community centers, places of worship, and in neighborhoods.

Meal Delivery

Among the 111 respondents that delivered meals, only 5 percent reported use of a third-party vendor (Figure 10). The most common practices were delivery along bus routes (41 percent) and to apartment complexes (40 percent). Nearly one third of meal delivery sponsors (32 percent) did not report using any of these practices.

Sponsors were also asked if someone needed to be present to accept meals when they were delivered. Nineteen percent said there was no requirement for anyone to be present to receive delivered meals (Figure 11). While the majority (81 percent) indicated someone had to be present, most commonly that could be the participant or a parent or guardian. About a quarter required participating children to be present.

Plans for 2024

Most respondents (86 percent) planned to serve non-congregate meals in Summer 2024 (Figure 12). Most returning sponsors do not plan to make any changes to the way they provide non-congregate meals in Summer 2024 but nearly one-fifth of them plan to expand service. Another fifth knew their organizations would be providing non-congregate meals in Summer 2024 but were unsure if their service models would change or not.

One in ten survey respondents were unsure if their organization would provide non-congregate meals in Summer 2024. Only 20 respondents indicated they do not plan to participate in non-congregate meal service again in summer 2024. Of these, thirteen respondents indicated that they would be providing congregate meal service during summer school and would therefore be ineligible to provide non congregate meal service at the same site. The remaining seven respondents indicated that they would not be participating in SFSP or SSO at all in 2024 due to changes in area eligibility or staffing issues.

Conclusion

Overall, sponsors of summer non-congregate meal service sites in 2023 viewed the program positively, indicating that they were able to provide more meals to more children at a cost less than or equal to congregate meal service. All sponsors used the meal service type flexibility (meal pick up or meal delivery). Most sponsors used at least one of the other flexibilities (parent/guardian pick up, multi-day meal issuance, bulk food distribution) and had previous experience with USDA summer meal programs and/or with non-congregate meal service. Pick-up sites were the most common method of distributing non-congregate meals in Summer 2023 and most sponsors planned to provide non-congregate meal service in Summer 2024.

 

For more information, read the full report “2023 Summer Non-Congregate Meal Service: Results from the 2023 Summer Non-Congregate Sponsor Survey.” The report was written by Susannah Bar, PhD, MPH of the Child Nutrition Research and Analysis Division in the Office of Policy Support for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.