Abstract Summary/Description
Many of the 26 million U.S. children who rely on free or reduced-price meals at school lose reliable food access during the summer months. However, little evidence has emerged on the relationship between poor food access and a student's ability to perform will in school. I study the role of free summer meal sites funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in supporting student achievement using student-level data from a large urban school district in the metro-Atlanta area. I find that approximately 70% of free/reduced-price meal eligible students live within 1 mile of a meal site, but that relaxing site location restrictions does not bring the remaining 30% any closer. In addition, I find that moving from zero to one mile to the nearest summer meal site is associated with lower achievement in reading and math. This relationship becomes stronger with distance, as students who live 3+ miles from a site experience even greater declines compared to students who live within 1 mile of a site.
