For many children, especially those from families with low incomes, summer vacation comes with a catch—no guaranteed meals at school. Several options exist for children to access food when school is on break, all of which are geared toward reducing food insecurity. However, there is no single solution to summer child hunger, and too often, the debate about which options schools should provide doesn’t consider what options families prefer.

As states hit a key deadline on January 1 to declare their 2024 plans, policymakers must understand what families want. We used survey data collected in August 2023 from rural, low-income households participating in a summer food delivery program to understand their preferences, finding that families see receiving electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards and home-delivered meals during the summer as the most helpful options.

Current summer food options for families

The most common approach to summer meals historically has been in-person programs at schools or other community sites through the Summer Food Service Program, also known as congregate feeding. Children are required to eat meals in person and may participate in additional enrichment activities, but not all summer meal sites are open for the entire summer. 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.

In 2022, Congress created two policy options to ensure students have access to food during summer break:

• school district–provided solutions for eating at home (such as grab-and-go meals, otherwise known as noncongregate feeding)
• Summer EBT, which would provide funds on a debit card restricted to grocery purchases for families whose children are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals

Grab-and-go programs were explored during the COVID-19 pandemic when children could not gather in person. Summer EBT has also been piloted in the past, and a similar program known as Pandemic-EBT was offered when schools were closed during the pandemic. But it proved complex for states to administer. Congress allowed states to begin offering grab-and-go programs in summer 2023 and will allow states to begin offering Summer EBT in summer 2024.

From 2019 to 2023, the US Department of Agriculture piloted the Meals-to-You program, a summer meal box delivery program for households in rural areas, primarily in Alaska, New Mexico, and Texas. The program delivered shelf-stable food boxes to children in eligible households during the summer.

Rural families prefer EBT cards and delivery options

We surveyed households participating in the Meals-to-You program in August 2023, almost all of which have low incomes and live in remote areas. This population is generally hard to reach through research because of barriers such as limited internet connectivity and language access, so their perspectives are often excluded when discussing summer meal options. We asked participants to rate home delivery programs, Summer EBT, congregate meals, and grab-and-go meals on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the least helpful and 10 being the most helpful.

Respondents expressed a strong preference for receiving EBT cards during the summer, with receiving meal box delivery as the second choice. In-person congregate programs and grab-and-go programs were far less preferred. Respondents rated an EBT program as the most helpful, with an average score of 9.3 out of 10. A meal box delivery program received the next highest rating of 8.4. Few respondents rated either of these programs below a 5 on the 0–10 scale.

Meanwhile, a congregate program received an average rating of 6.1, and a grab-and-go program received an average rating of 6.0. Both options received about one-third of their total ratings below 5, with a substantial portion of these respondents rating each of these options at 0 or 1.

States and nutrition policy experts have long assumed in-person congregate programs were the best option, although experiences during the pandemic have increased awareness of other strategies’ value. Our research shows this assumption may not be correct, as households in extremely rural communities express a strong preference for EBT cards and meal box delivery programs, especially when access to grocery stores is challenging. Our analysis also highlights that households often prefer having more than one option, which allows them flexibility as circumstances change (such as losing access to a car).

Meeting families’ summer food preferences

Availability of these programs, however, is unequal across states and districts. Policy surrounding the Meals-to-You pilot program stipulated that summer school meals couldn’t be provided at the same time as Meals-to-You, regardless of if a household could use school meals. Similarly, noncongregate meal service is only available to certain rural communities where congregate meals aren’t also offered.

It’s not yet clear how many states are electing the Summer EBT option for 2024, especially given anticipated implementation challenges based on previous experiences with Pandemic-EBT, complex data requirements, and funding for only 50 percent of administrative costs for implementing Summer EBT. Taken together, these policies limit the ability for states and districts to offer summer food options.

Families with children should have a range of food resources available to them, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach. As states elect 2024 summer food options and the Food and Nutrition Service crafts guidance to facilitate state take-up, they should consider how these options can be responsive to families’ needs and preferences.