SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today congratulated the West Contra Costa Unified School District and its food service director, Heidi Camorongran, on winning for the second time the coveted Summer Sunshine Award given by the United States Department of Agriculture for superior results in feeding children in the National School Lunch Seamless Summer Feeding Option (SSFO).

"Research has shown that students who eat healthy foods and get enough exercise and rest do better in school," O'Connell said. "Our school districts play an important role in providing nutritional meals to students during the school year. But hunger does not end when the school year ends. School-based nutrition programs play a critical role in ensuring that many children get enough to eat during the summer months. I am proud of the West Contra Costa Unified School District for its leadership in the summer nutrition program."

This year, the district won the award in the category of Innovative Ways to Raise Site Participation. The district's efforts achieved a 22-percent increase in the number of children eating nutritious meals while on school vacation.

During school vacation periods, many children do not have access to a nutritious meal because their parents are on a fixed income or work at low paying jobs and cannot afford to purchase a variety of nutritious foods. Many children are at home while their parents work and are too young to prepare a balanced meal. For whatever the reason, many children are not prepared to return to school ready to learn. When children are not prepared, they become discouraged and fall behind early in the school year.

Ms. Camorongran and West Contra Costa Unified School District are national leaders in program innovations to ensure that children in the district return to school ready to learn. This year, their innovative methods included:

• Recruiting program volunteers via free advertisements in local newspapers
• Providing program participants with a variety of meals that were visibly attractive and appealing to children because they were packaged in clear plastic bags
• Their Rollin' Café Mobile was able to provide meals to children at five different sites and, at the same time, provided advertisement for the summer food program
• Establishing relations with new community organizations to create new sites
• Hosting more than 20 barbeques at different sites
• Hosting a Summer Food Service Program  kick-off event – community leaders and members attended
• Using the school's district Electronic School Messenger that calls all households in the school district to provide families with information and site locations for the SSFO

"In order to help children succeed in school, they must continue to receive nutritious meals while on school vacations," O'Connell said. "I encourage all districts in California to follow West Contra Costa's example by not only establishing summer meal sites in low-income areas or their community, but to also partner with community leaders to ensure children have access to a nutritious meal during their school vacations."