The NCAA News - News and Features

August 3, 1998

USDA eases NYSP access to services

The National Youth Sports Program is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but NYSP administrators across the country are the ones who recently received a birthday present.

As part of the festivities at an NYSP 30th anniversary celebration at the University of Notre Dame, Shirley Watkins, undersecretary of food, nutrition and consumer services for the United States Department of Agriculture, announced a policy change that will make it much easier to provide for NYSP programs to use the USDA's Summer Food Services Program.

The food component is one of the most important parts of NYSP. The USDA provides $3.4 million that goes toward hot meals for NYSP participants. Depending on the hours of the day in which a particular program is conducted, that means that every NYSP participant gets two hot meals or one hot meal and a snack throughout the five-week program.

Because NYSP also receives funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, until now NYSP administrators had to provide economic verification for the participants both to HHS and the USDA. However, Watkins announced that from now on, the USDA will assume that all NYSP participants are eligible since they will already have been verified through HHS.

The food program is part of NYSP's "wellness" effort. Watkins said that the purpose of the initiative is not only to feed children who are economically distressed but also to move them toward more healthful diets. The Summer Food Services Program serves meals to about 2.3 million low-income children a day at more than 28,000 sites, including the college campuses that host NYSP.

During her visit to Notre Dame, Watkins ate breakfast and visited with NYSP participants at the university's South Dining Hall, attended an educational program and observed Irish varsity football players as they provided coaching tips to NYSP participants.

Another part of the anniversary celebration at Notre Dame was a presentation by Renee Hylton. Hylton is author of an NYSP education curriculum that was piloted at Portland State University and is now being used on a national basis.

Although sports is perhaps the most visible part of NYSP, the program is built around developing the relationships among proper nutrition, education and athletics. NYSP is conducted on 182 campuses nationwide for children ages 10 to 16.

This was the second 30th anniversary celebration for NYSP. A program in Memphis featured the antidrug message of Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.