SUMMER MEALS HELP FAMILIES

USDA’s Summer Meals Program provides kids with the nutrition they need when school is out, and a safe haven where they can play and learn to keep their minds and bodies active during the summer months. The availability of these meals, which are served at no cost to children 18 and under, also reduces the financial burden on caretakers when school is out. In the summer of 2015, roughly 3.8 million children and teens were served nearly 191 million meals were served to children and teens at more than 66,000 sites across the country. Rural areas are particularly difficult to serve, but states are coming up with ways to meet the challenge. Some of these could work in urban areas, too.  A school district in Southeast Kansas retrofitted a bus with tables, booths, and bookshelves to create a Meals and Reading Vehicle, MARV, that will serve lunch on weekdays during the summer in three low-income neighborhoods to .The California Summer Meal Coalition and the California Library Association have joined to provide summer meal sites at libraries. Over the last three years the number of library meals sites has grown from 20 to more than 125.

Source: USDA, 7/26/16, Summer Meals