Addressing Summer Hunger through the Summer Food Service Program

Kansas communities have come together to serve thousands more meals year after year to kids through the Summer Food Service Program and served over 1.4 million meals in 2017.

Every school day, 177,000 Kansas kids eat a free or reduced-price lunch through the National School Lunch Program. Many of those kids also receive a free or reduced-price breakfast through the School Breakfast Program. But during the three months of summer break, those programs aren’t available to provide the consistent nutrition students get at school.

The Summer Food Service Program is a USDA program created to fill the gap between the end of one school year and the start of another in qualifying low-income areas. It’s flexible in that meals can be served in many places kids go during the summer. Many Summer Food Service Program sites serve no-cost meals to kids at schools, libraries, swimming pools, churches, camps, and apartment complexes. The organizations running the programs are reimbursed for the meals they serve.

Kansas’s participation in the Summer Food Service Program has increased substantially at all levels since 2011 (see table); the number of sponsors, sites, and the number of meals served have all gone up each year. Since 2011, Kansas has seen an 89 percent increase in sponsors, a 139 percent increase in meal sites, and a 66 percent increase in participation.