Summer Feeding: Help Ensure that No Child Goes Hungry this Summer
January 31, 2017
Did you know that 1.2 million meals and snacks were served to Iowa children
this past summer via the Summer Food Service Program? Even with this, an
estimated 180,000 low-income Iowa children did not have access to summer
meal sites.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program is
designed to provide nutritious breakfast, lunch, and supper meals or snacks to
children during the summer. How can your organization get involved?
Choose to sponsor a program. Schools, local government agencies, camps,
faith-based and other private non-profit organizations may become program
sponsors. If your organization already provides services to the community,
has capable staff and good management practices to run a food service, you
can administer the Summer Food Service Program.
Choose to be a meal service site. Sites may be located in a variety of
settings, including parks, community buildings, churches, migrant centers,
schools, and apartment complexes to name just a few. Do you provide
programming to youth over the summer? You may be well positioned to offer
summer meals in conjunction with the services you already provide.
Promote summer meal sites in your area. Help spread the word to children and families in your community about
the time and location of summer meal sites. Promote summer meals via your organization newsletters, bulletins,
and website and hang banners and posters onsite.
Choose to partner with summer meal sites. Volunteer to provide activities for kids and teens or help to serve and
supervise the meal service. Even if your organization cannot take on the responsibilities of a sponsor or site, you
can team up with a sponsor to provide support to an existing program. Site programming can assist with bringing
children back to the site in addition to keeping them mentally and physically active over the summer.
If you are an organization with a licensed kitchen and food service staff,
you can also choose to partner by vending meals to a sponsoring
organization.
An informational webinar will be held on Feb. 16 at 1:30 p.m. Join us to
learn more about the program and what is involved. Help to counter this
summer hunger gap. To register for the webinar, go to the Iowa
Department of Education Calendar.
For more information contact:
Stephanie Dross, RDN, LD
FFVP & SFSP Consultant
Iowa Department of Education
Bureau of Nutrition & Health Services
515.281.4760
[email protected]
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Photos submitted by:
Saydel CSD, Woodside Middle School
SFSP, Ottumwa YMCA SFSP & the Dubuque
Dream Center SFSP