Under Secretary Concannon speaks with members of the Chicago Summer Food Work Group. From left: Mark Haller (ISBE), Diane Doherty (IHC), Monsignor Michael Boland (Archdiocese of Chicago), Under Secretary Kevin Concannon (USDA).

During the school year, nearly 32 million children receive a free or reduced price lunch through the National School Lunch Program. During the summer months most schools – and school meal programs – close down, leaving children without an opportunity for nutritious meals each day.

Read more »

Thank you to all of the USDA Summer Food Service Programs that submitted an entry into the “Food, Fun, and Sun” Summer Food Service Program Story and Photo Contest!  The competition was extremely tough as we had over 100 contest submissions representing programs in over 40 States!  The first round of judging is complete.  We are thrilled to present to you the four contest finalists in each of the four categories. Read more »

Feeding hungry kids healthy food is what the Summer Food Service Program is all about.

The “Food, Fun and Sun!” Contest is in full swing and submissions are rolling in to beat the submission deadline of August 20.  The USDA Food and Nutrition Service launched the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Story and Photo contest as a way to collect promising practices of the SFSP around the four target categories of the contest: Read more »

A participant enjoys an apple fresh from the tree during a Boys and Girls Club field trip to a local farm.

Summer is in full swing, and it’s time for some healthy competition!  Around the country, local organizations from churches to community centers are busy serving meals to kids through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), a federally-funded program that provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income areas get the nutrition they need throughout the summer months when school is not in session. Read more »

Cross posted from the Let’s Move! blog:

As part of Let’s Move!, First Lady Michelle Obama has challenged community and faith leaders to combat hunger. One of her goals for Let’s Move Faith and Communities is to encourage these trusted leaders to start 1,000 Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) sites where kids can gather for a healthy meal when school is out. As faith and community leaders know, however, getting meals to hungry children is much easier said than done. That’s why the Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) joined Let’s Move Faith and Communities: to help folks serve meals to the one in four children in Texas who don’t get enough to eat every summer.

THI, a Baylor University project that organizes communities to end hunger, rose to the First Lady’s challenge to start SFSP sites. And the communities in Texas need THI’s help; Texas has the second highest food insecurity rate in the country. Through their partnership with the Texas Department of Agriculture, USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and local leaders, THI has increased meals served statewide by 2 million since last summer, the single largest increase in the U.S. Because of this partnership, Texas now serves more summer meals than any other state in the country. Read more »

On June 9^th, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service kicked off the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) — “Food That’s In When School Is Out”, in Atlanta by visiting the Marietta Community Center in Marietta, Georgia as part of USDA’s first ever National SFSP Celebration Week. The Center provided free meals and a nutrition class on the new USDA MyPlate to 50 wonderful children, as feeding kids during the summer can pose a challenge to some parents when school meals are no longer available.

Although the SFSP program is completely dedicate to helping kids during the summer, when they are most vulnerable to experiencing hunger because school is out, our participation rate on this program is only 17%, but USDA is doing everything it can to get more meals to children during the summer months. We need to be sure that every child who should be receiving a summer meal gets one because no child should ever be going hungry. Although our National School Lunch Program is serving more than 21 million children during the school year, we are only serving 3 million children through SFSP, so clearly there is still a long way to go in reaching all the children who are eligible for this program, and we need everyone’s help to pitch in. Read more »